Magic Chapter
by AngelHeero
Summary: **UPDATED!! 8/25 IT'S COMPLETE** The digi-tachi take a trip through the pages of a fantasy novel. Swords and Sorcery meets Hair gel and Laptops! Focus on Yama&Kou. With Mishirou/ Taiora. OOCness and Jyou bastardisation. Only because we love him.
1. 1-5 News From a Fool: A Mentor's Advice

DISCLAIMER: Hi, I don't own anything, including Digimon, not mine, no money, don't sue

DISCLAIMER: Hi, I don't own anything, including Digimon, not mine, no money, don't sue....

WARNINGS: Either real or imagined, be aware of Yaoi, there is no INTENDED, but some people are sick, so... be wary of Taito, Kouto, Jyouto, Karito, and Taketo(ew)... Also, for those who get angry... There is also possible Mimato, Mishirou(blatant), Jyoura, and Taiora... 

CON'T: OOC-ness... there are several characters that act different from what they do in the show... please ignore all differences in Taichi (especially), Mimi, Takeru, Yamato, Koushirou, Jyou, Sora, and Kari... 

OH, and for all those with squeamish stomachs, this story has very violent parts... bring your inhaler! 

FINAL NOTE: Most of these warnings are solely there so that **oversensitive people** won't flame us... (no names mentioned, right Sam?) truthfully, most everyone is clean and OKAY! 

ENJOY! 

PLEASE!!!!!!!!

Magic ChapterBy Ucchan and Angel (YAY!)

1. -_- JOE

The time was at hand! I faced my victim with a triumphant smile.

"What do you expect to accomplish by this, Kido?" asked the Duchess Sora Takenouchi, defiant to the last. 

"Silence you melodramatic wench!" I brandished my ultimate weapon, " With the head of this Cockatrimon", I thrust my arm forward so that she may see the huge chicken head more clearly, "I shall be rid of you and take over your duchy! Insert evil overdone laugh here And there's nothing you or your pitiful excuse for a duke can do to stop me! More evil-type laughter.

"Now who's being melodramatic…?"

2. ^_~ KOUSHIROU

...Okay...just a little more... I tapped the vile just so. I only need one more drop of it to complete the spell...

"WIZARD IZUMI!"

I jumped nearly twice my height into the air and spun around to see just who had the audacity to burst into my study and the MOST inopportune time. The vile I was holding flew thew the air and shattered at the intruder's feet, its green contents already beginning to burn (yet another) hole in the stone floor.

Standing in my doorway, hand still posed on the door handle, was one of the Queens many messenger boys. He looked hurried and out of breath, as if he'd been running up stairs for about 20 minutes. (Of course my study's in the tower, so that is very well possible) 

"What," I grit out " do you want?"

"Queen Kari request your presence."

"What ever for?"

"Got me but she said it was urgent."

I sighed exasperated, "Fine..." I closed my eyes and ignored the page at the door and instead visualized the extravagant throne room. 

And was there. A neat little trick I've learned. Teleportation. Handy. 

"You're late..." 

I opened my eyes and looked up at the speaker. Sir Yamato. Captain of the Guard. He was standing on the red carpeted dais with the young queen, his ever-present squire, Takeru, at his side. How I ever remembered the young squire's name, I'll never know. He just seemed to be more exuberant then the others as he displayed himself.

"WIZARD IZUMI!" he cried jovially. I suppressed a winced. I've been getting that a lot lately. 

"So it is." Queen Kari said in a smooth dignified tone as she cast the boy an amused glance.

"I would like to inquire as to the heritage of the reason it was summoned." I took a small bow out of habit and when I straightened myself to see 4 sets of eyes blinking at me. Wha... four..? Scanning over the dais again I spotted a man with wild brown hair and large matching eyes. I think I'd seen a portrait of him some where in the main hall...

They continued stare at me uncomprehendingly, I then decided to rephrase myself. "You rang?"

The Queen smiled, now understanding, and motioned to the man with the freakish hair. "This is my brother, Duke Kamiya. He has brought us grave news from the Duchy of Takenouchi."

Grave news... great... I took a knee. This was going to take a while. 

"We, my wife Sora, and I," the young man now revealed to be Taichi Kamiya, spoke quietly. (Is it me or does he have a unnaturally high voice for a male of his age group?) "were attacked by a deranged alchemist named Joe.."

It was about here that I had a really, really good gut feeling as to why I was summoned. 

"He cornered the both of us," Taichi continued, "I managed to get away but he turned Sora to stone..."

The queen took over from here, "Jyou has taken over the Duchy and is now a threat to the kingdom."

"Let me guess" I said, rubbing the bridge of my nose tiredly, "you want me to eliminate the obstacle?" 

"Why, Yes! How insightful of you."

Joy of Joys...

3. ~_~ YAMATO

Let it never be said I don't like sleep. In fact, I REVEL in sleep. But apparently, no one else in the ENTIRE castle seems to notice, or else I would not have been so rudely awakened by the sound of

"CAPTAIN YAMATO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!"

...at this ungodly hour in the morning.

The young squire, who just happened to be my younger brother, burst into my quarters with a loud SLAM! I scrambled to pull my leggings up, "KYAA! Takeru, what is it?"

"IT'S QUEEN KARI!" my younger sibling informed me imperatively, "She's just sent for the both of us."

I froze, in shock, "THE QUEEN!??! Ah, shit!" I cursed, hurriedly getting dressed, "C'mon, Takeru, we've got to hurry, or we'll get demoted and sent to serve Duke Kamiya again!"

Takeru screamed in horror, "OH NO!" Then more calm, "What's $H1T mean?"

I shook my head as I finished getting dressed, "Never mind, I'm ready, so let's go, remember what happened the LAST time we had to serve the Duke?"

Takeru almost began to cry as we bolted out the door, "I'll never go swimming again!"

We arrived at the Queen's throne room within several minutes. The extravagances the queen had lain out for herself were fitting for the wise and fair ruler that she was. Decorated mostly in red and purple hues, the large throne room was not so done out that it was eye-popping, but it was appealing without being self-important. I always was proud to be in Queen Kari's service, and thanked the previous rulers for appointing her ruler instead of her idiot brother whom they married off to the Takenouchi Duchy's daughter. Duke Kamiya was NOT the most talked-about member of the Queen's family, unless you were talking about incompetent rulers, of course.

Once again marveled by the room's humble beauty, I remembered my place and kneeled before my Queen with my brother at my side, "Greetings, my queen, what are the reasons for your summons?"

Our lovely queen rose from her throne, her sage curls framing her face nicely and highlighting her maroon eyes. Queen Kari's purple robes flowing with each step as she walked closer to our position, "Ah, Captain, how good of you to show up so promptly, we're currently awaiting for Wizard Izumi's entrance. My imbecile brother has somehow managed to escape trouble once again, only to come running to me for help," she spoke matter-of-factly.

I nodded, "I see, what is the problem?"

"Yeah, what is it, Queen Kari? I'm sure we can help, right?" Takeru spoke up suddenly with great enthusiasm.

Which is exactly NOT the way to act in the presence of a queen, "Takeru," I hissed at him from my kneeling position.

My little brother blushed and threw himself back upon his knee with whipped embarrassment, "Gomen ne..."

To my surprise the queen giggled with delight, "How nice, young squire, I certainly hope you both can be of service..."

We nodded solemnly and stood up with all the military regale we could muster, I saluted as Takeru smiled.

It was then, the ingenious Wizard Izumi appeared before us with one of his latest spells.

I smiled, the wizard was one of the few people in the castle I respected outside the Queen. "You're late."

"WIZARD IZUMI!" my squire called cheerfully in surprise.

"So it is," Queen Kari agreed, amused at my brother's exuberance.

"I would like to inquire as to the heritage of the reason it was summoned," the wizard asked, scanning the room.

I blinked, Izumi repeated his statement, "You rang?" he asked.

The queen smiled and introduced the poor wizard to her moronic brother, Duke Kamiya. She explained to us the awful situation in which an alchemist had transformed the moron's only livelihood (his wife) into a lawn ornament, and now *WE* had to fix it.

The Duke, who apparently had never heard of a haircut, nodded gravely, "Well, shall we be off?"

"WAITAMINNIUT!" I called, realizing my outburst and not caring, "What do you mean 'we'?"

Duke Taichi Kamiya smiled his incredibly childish grin, "'We' as in Wizard Izumi, your young squire, you, and I, of course. How could I just sit back and wait while the rest of you save my wife?"

Takeru and I exchanged worried glances, "But..." we said in unison... and almost began to cry.

4. -_-* TAICHI

I peered over the ledge of the castle, scanning the city my younger sister ruled over. I always wondered why she got the kingdom instead of me, the eldest boy, but I guess it's because Mom and Dad always felt me too free to be tied down by such... troubles. And hey, I supposed they were right, here I am, leading a party to save my beloved wife Sora from the clutches of an evil alchemist named Joe. That damn bastard named Joe he cheats at cards. 

I waited at the edge of the castle gate as the members of my party arrived one-by-one. First to show up, was the captain's younger brother as well as squire, um... what's his name.

He walked up to me dutifully, "Hello Duke Kamiya," he said with a dry voice, I guess he has a cold, poor lad.

"Hello, young... young... what's your name?" I asked politely.

He answered in his dry tone once again, "Takeru Ishida, sir..."

I thought a moment on the name, trying to commit it to memory, when a thought struck me, "Well," I said, wanting to start conversation, "I do think I remember another squire named Takeru, he visited my Duchy several weeks ago and there was a small incident in the moat. Poor boy, he wasn't too bright, though."

Young Takeru smiled, his teeth clenched to show his humor, "That's too bad for him, sir..." he made a slight growling noise, which I attributed to his cold.

Showing up soon after that, was captain Yamato, equipped with moderate armor and a small arsenal of weapons at his disposal, and leading three beasts of burden.

"How odd," I mentioned, view the three strangely colored horses, "This one blue-striped horse has such funny sharp teeth, a strangely wet nose, and odd hooves, they kinda look like paws..."

Captain Yamato shook his head and smiled, "Yes, Garuru is quite an odd... horse. These others are called Pegasu and Centauru." He gestured to a brown, feathered horse, and a helmeted one-eyed horse. 

Before I could inform the Captain of Centauru's missing eye and exactly what we should've done about it, Wizard Izumi popped into view with a sudden burst of magic. 

I looked over the young wizard, "Izumi? Aren't wizards supposed to wear a dress?"

Wizard Izumi sighed and muttered something about a 'queen' before explaining to me he preferred wearing his tunic and carrying his supplies in his pack, not a large pointy hat. 

I nodded, though not fully understanding and asked, "Shall we be off?"

Captain Yamato turned to Izumi, "I told you reasoning with him will do you no good."

Izumi nodded thoughtfully, "I'll remember next time not to try to reason with a lesser-evolved species, thanks."

With that, we mounted the steeds and rode to town to meet with Izumi's council.

5. ^_~ KOUSHIROU

I stood on the street out side a small ornate door. Some runes were carved in to the doorframe to prevent unwanted visitors, the sense of magic teasing my senses. It was a simple protection spell, true enough, but the familiar presence behind it brought back memories... 

" So... are you going to...I don't know..." Yamato seemed to think for a moment, "how about...knock?" He gave me a meaningful look. 

I blinked at him coming back to reality. "Sorry, Yamato... I haven't been here in a while that's all..."

"Wizard Izumi..." The duke ventured, "Might I ask what we're doing here, again?"

I decided to 'politely' ignore that question. It would be the third time since we arrived in town that we had to explain to this scatter-brained idiot what exactly our business here was. 

The blonde guard on the other hand 'calmly' (I admired his restraint) told him for a third time, "We're going to talk to Koushirou's old Sensei to see if we can get some information of how to go about turning your wife back to normal."

"Oh..." Kamiya said. "And whose idea was this?"

Yamato's little brother stopped banging his head against a wall long enough to give the Duke a humoring smile, "Yours, sir."

I turned my attention back to the door and studied the symbols in the wood. Using my index finger I traced the sun symbol in the top left corner and the moon in the right, then placed my hand on the rune scrawled in the center. The figures glowed for a moment and a faint noise was heard inside the small house.

"What was that?" Yamato asked.

"Sensei called it a doorbell." The door swung open quietly and I walked inside. It was rather dark compared to the bright noon sun and it took my eyes a moment to adjust, but when they finally did, I glanced around and drank in my surroundings. The main room we were in was very cluttered with books and papers strewn over various tables and chairs, scattered across the floor on the wall. Bottles and jars lined shelves alongside even MORE books. The room was lit by a well-tended blaze in the fireplace accented with the heavy scent of pine and sage. 

"It smells funny in here," Takeru mentioned, crinkling his nose a bit.

"Those chemically induced reactions your experiencing are only inhibited by the content of the magically enhanced concoctions imbued within this dwelling," I explained to the young squire, "Haven't you ever smelled magic before?"

Takeru shook his head profusely at the idea, "You mean you can *smell* magic?" he asked.

His older brother, Yamato nodded, "Trust me, squirt, you'll get used to magic really quickly around wizards," he rolled his eyes.

I ignored the two and went back to perusing the dwelling for my old Sensei. I walked deeper into the room and finally found him hunched over a book at the desk where I had cast my first fire spell. He looked up from the slightly singed desk and peered over at me. The man was the living image of what had become the stereotype for wizards everywhere. The man was so old, I still pondered if he originated the stereotype initially. He wore a tattered pointed hat, a masking cloak, loose tan clothing with various runic designs. He had a red-brown mane that fell down to his mid-back and was tied near the end. I couldn't see much of his face, but his electric green eyes bequeathed themselves. 

My Sensei righted himself upon my arrival, "Koushirou, how are you? How have you been? It's been a long time..."

I smiled, "Yes, Sensei, it has, I'm sorry for not visiting more often, but I've been a bit busy with castle duties..." I explained with my hand-behind-my-head embarrassment. 

Yamato and Duke Kamiya approached us, and I offhandedly noticed Takeru playing with Teiru, Sensei's white kitten.

"Excuse me, Izumi, but we are kind of in a hurry," Yamato mentioned politely.

"Whose this old guy?" the Duke asked stupidly, "How is *he* supposed to help us break the alchemist's spell?"

Sensei's eyebrows raised slightly, "I see you brought some friends," he stated, then addressed the others, "I am Wizard Mon, it appears you are in need of my services?" he introduced himself.

The captain spoke up, "Yes, sir, Wizard Mon, we've been sent by Queen Kari to help Duke Kamiya here to save his Duchy from the grip of Joe, the alchemist."

Sensei looked at him thoughtfully, "Joe? I remember him, he's actually quite the chemist, but he needs practice turning lead into gold..." he stated, "But I digress, you need me to break a spell of his for you then?"

I nodded at the question, "He's been using a petrification potion that I'm unfamiliar with. Duke Kamiya brought a sample of the stone compound for you to analyze...." I paused, taking the stone from the moronic Duke and handing it to Sensei Mon. "I was hoping you could dissect it into its alchemical origins and direct us to the most efficient restorative so we could be on our way."

Wizard Mon took the stone and turned to his mage laboratory. I signaled for the others to follow us as I walked down the long corridor to what appeared to be an 'underground explosives testing' area. Actually it was just a Mage training room. But it might as well be, considering what happened when I was training here. I won't go into details but lets just say that the wall still has warped spots and scaring. Anyway a training room isn't a training room without a strong magic barrier cast on the walls to keep out interference but mainly to prevent the student from destroying the entire town because of one little miscalculation. And it really was just ONE miscalculation! Really! I didn't mean it...

Magic was pungent in the air and it was nearly palatable. Any normal person should not have been able to feel it but I noticed the brother flinch visibly and Takeru make a quiet comment to his sibling. They can't use magic but they can obviously sense it...I idly wondered where they learned it. The Duke, on the other hand just stared around the blankly.

Not that there was much to look at anyway. The training room was a blank domed room and surprising large for such a small abode such as Wizard Mon's. Other then that, it was nothing special. 

My Sensei stood in the middle of the room still holding the sample in one gloved hand. With his other hand he drew a circle in the air in front of him a gold ring appeared. He reached through the ring and his arm seemed to disappear for a moment. After a moment he pulled out a large staff with a carved sun dawning it.

I stood and waited patiently, Yamato tapped his foot, Takeru watched in awe and Taichi stared in confusion. 

He tapped the staff on the ground once, the sun began to glow softly, and the air in the room began to kick up. 

"Are you done with the dramatics yet, Sensei?" I asked tiredly.

He smiled at me. "Kou-chan... any sorcerer worth his salt knows that you have to make a big show out of magic." 

I rolled my eyes. 

"Sorry, sir, but we're in a hurry." Yamato put in, "So could we drop the light show and get to the point."

"Oh, sorry." Wizard Mon put the staff back in the ring and retrieved a book about a foot thick. He dropped it on the floor with a slam and started flipping through pages. "Petrification.... Petrificaction... Ah Ha!" He called in triumph waving for me to take a look, "Here it is." He pointed at a typically decorated page with a vine border. In the center of the page, in tiny print, were the ingredients and incantation for a spell. 

"That's great, Sensei! So what do we need?"

He whipped out a magnifying glass and read over the page, "Well...you need...an Icarian's prize, an astral beacon, the blood of a magic tree and the tear of the flying mythic creature."

I sweatdropped, "What?" 

"That's what it says."

And how the hell are we going to go about getting those!?" Yamato stormed. I could understand his frustration. He probably expected this to be an in and out job. Unfortunately, it appears that we will be parading around the countryside looking for spell items before we even make it to the Duchy. 

Wizard Mon smiled at us again looking up from his book. "You kids are intelligent," he glanced over at Taichi, "most of you anyway. You'll figure something out." 

I resisted the urge to break down and cry. This was going to a loooong trip.


	2. 6-8 The Quest Begins: Infinity Mountain

Ethan Frome

DISCLAIMER: Not mine, no money, don't sue...

For further warnings, see part 1

Also: We do not own Grandia (though we wish we did!) A prize to whoever figures out why we put this part up! A free Tokomon for everyone!

Magic Chapter by Ucchan and Angel (Hurray!)

6. ^_^!! TAKERU 

We all sat round a small table at the local tavern, pondering our next move. We couldn't think on empty stomachs of course so we ordered a 'small' lunch...(AKA: Enough food to feed a family of four for two weeks.)

Big bro and the Duke where in the middle of a heated spork fight over the last chicken leg when Koushirou, pushing all four of his bone-laden plates away, began to think of the mission.

"An Icarian's Prize, an Astral beacon, the blood of a magic tree, and..."he muttered to himself.

"And a tear from the flying mythic creature!" I added helpfully.

Koushirou smiles at me, "Thanks, Takeru." He pushes his fingers through his short spiked auburn hair and sighed. "So, where do we start looking?"

Yamato looked up from nursing his soar hand, Taichi had some how managed to win the spork duel. I guess no matter how much of a great fighter you are, hunger always wins out...

"Well," he said, casting Taichi a sour glance, " We have to figure out what they ARE first." He absent-mindedly tightened his black headband that unsuccessfully held his mass of sun gold hair in check, " For instance: What the hell is an Icarian's prize?"

The wizard leaned his small thin form agents the back of the chair in thought, "Well...first off, what's an Icarian?"

We all blinked at him.

"Anyone?"

We blinked again and Kou-san sweatdropped.

"Okay..." the wizard rubbed his temples, "An Icarian is an ancient race of winged people whom reside upon the summit of Infinity Mountain. They don't get out much, so we're probably going to have to go to them."

"But," Kamiya questioned around a mouthful of chicken leg, "What is the Icarian prize?"

Kou-san smile knowingly, " What does an Icarian have that no other human has?"

"Baby Icarians?" That duke said stupidly.

I looked to Onii-san, he was gripping the sides of his chair in a desperate attempt to *not* beam the moron with the empty dinner pan. 

"Wings," I said calmly, again, trying to be helpful, "they have wings."

Kou-san dragged his head off the table and smiles brightly at me, " Thank you, Squire. That's the right answer."

I beamed inwardly.

Yama calmed down. "Okay, so they have wings...we've established this...What about it?"

Our brilliant leader, the Duke, decided to answer, "So, that means *we* need wings, too!"

About that time was when Nii-san snapped. Luckily, I figured this would happen and had handcuffed him to his chair. After his mad rage damaged most of the furniture nearby, he calmly stated, "No, sir, I don't believe that's the solution we're looking for..." I noticed a grinding sound from his clenched teeth.

Wizard Izumi, who had somehow created a protection spell, sat down in the only chair left in the tavern, "Captain Yamato, if the Icarians are winged people, then their wings, or more magically speaking, their feathers would be their prize, wouldn't you agree?"

I pondered this for a moment and nodded eagerly in agreement, as did my big Bro. Duke Kamiya, also stated his 'agreement', "Yes, Glad I thought of it!"

With comments like that the Duke had better watch himself. One day he's going to piss off two of us...

7. O_o SORA

Well, here I was, slowly being turned into the next Mount Rushmore. It was INCREDIBLY boring, and the only sign of life anywhere I could see came from a blue-haired maniac.

"Oh, my darling Sora-chan!" Joe, the evil alchemist, gushed at me, he'd been at this for roughly two hours, and his bright blue hair was beginning to hurt my eyes.

I leaned, or at least part of me did, against the wall I was being petrified next to, "Are you done yet?"

"No my dear, it has actually yet to begun," he spouted.

I resisted the urge to sigh loudly and bury my head in my hands; those being one of the few parts of my body yet still able to move. A thought hit me, "Wait a minute," I asked, "When this whole mess started, you were over there calling me a melodramatic wench, and other colorful names, might I add."

Joe dismissed it, "The heat of the moment, my dear. Will you ever forgive me?"

I stared at him blatantly, and decided not to dignify that comment with an answer.

"What?" he asked, "Was it something I said?"

I rolled my eyes, "Gee, do you think I can have some time to think about it first, this is so sudden..." I remarked sarcastically. 

He didn't catch the sarcasm, "Well, I don't know, you only have until the spell finishes turning you into stone, which should be only about a week."

I couldn't help it anymore, knowing my life would be only that of a statue for the rest of eternity kinda brought me over the edge, "YOU'RE INSANE!!!!" 

"Oh, you noticed," Joe beamed, "Do you think I've got it down yet?"

I was on the verge of tears, "Why are you doing this?"

"There you go with that melodramatic stuff again," his black eyes dismissed me, "But if you really must know..." he began.

I nodded, muttering to myself, "the villain *always* tells his victim of his evil plans... it's in the script!"

"Well, my sweet, it's all that stupid husband's of yours fault," Joe explained.

I sighed, "Well, duh, I knew that, he's always getting in trouble. It's not as if you're the first mad alchemist who tried to take over the Duchy by slowly turning me to stone because of something my idiot husband did," I paused, "What did he do anyway? This time?"

Joe blinked, sipping some tea, "Nothing."

"What?"

"He married you and took the duchy by default, I find that incredibly unfair. Now I'm simply taking what I deserve," he explained.

I lost it for the umpteenth time that afternoon, "WHAT DO YOU MEAN 'WHAT YOU DESERVE!'" I yelled, "THE ONLY THING YOU DESERVE IS A KICK IN THE $@^^@^%" I rattled off several body parts. 

Joe sighed, "My dear, what kind of relationship can we have if you're going to be like this?"

"Hopefully, not one at all," I fumed.

"Which is exactly why I'm turning you to stone, dear Sora," he stated simply.

I frowned, "That's another thing, if you love me so much, why are you turning me to stone?"

"Because, my pet, you will be at my side, ruling the duchy for all eternity in a gown of stone!" Joe intoned.

I screamed, "AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!!!!!!"

8. ^_~ KOUSHIROU

He screamed, "AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!!!!!!"

I sweatdropped.

Young Takeru screamed, "CATCH HIM!"

Captain Yamato yelled, "LET HIM FALL!"

I rolled my eyes, and concentrated on a simple air-based spell. The tingling of magic flew through me in a rush flowing over my skin and into my hands. When I felt I had enough power I gestured in to the Duke's general direction willing a field around him, "Levitation."

"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAUhf!" Taichi was suddenly caught in a clear bubble of air that gently lifted him up back onto the cliff with the rest of the party.

"Your Grace," I said simply, canceling the spell, "I suggest that you keep both feet on the ground and try not to go plunging head first off anymore cliffs." 

"Keep in mind that this is only a suggestion," Yamato added. 

The idiot Duke nodded happily as if agreeing with Yamato's statement. Come to think of it, maybe he was...

I turned away from the group to take in my surroundings. Infinity Mountain. The highest peak in the known world. And we we're at the summit. The view was beautiful you could see all the way across the kingdom. It had taken us about a day to find the place and another to climb it (I doing most of the work, using my levitating spells...sighs) 

I'm still reeling from the time the Duke nearly killed us all when he just *had* to play with the little bear cubs... And then that incident with the flying unicorn... Not to mention when Yamato and Takeru wouldn't budge unless I flew them over the water trap. I still don't understand what the Duke did to them in that moat...

Anyway, our troupe of specialists had finally conquered the mountain's summit. And it was time to begin our mission.

"So... where are all the Icarians?" Takeru asked.

Duke Taichi spoke up, "What are Icarians again?"

I sighed, dismissing his question, Yamato on the other hand had not. 

He pointed skyward. "That is an Icarian."

We all looked up and there, hovering above us were five tall human forms.

Before we could fully consider this situation the winged beings landed in a large circle around us. They were quite beautiful. The one before me was tall, with long blonde hair that hung down his back, and donned a strange half mask that only covered his eyes and forehead. Upon closer inspection I also noticed the fact he was carrying a bat like weapon on his hip. His gloved hand was settled dangerously close to it. About now is when the concept of the Icarians seeing us as a threat dawned on me. Since they were a secluded race, they, of course, would see unexpected visitors as a possible danger to them. So as long as we did make any move that could mark us as hostile we would be all right.

"Ohhh...Pretty wings..." Kamiya commented quietly in awe.

Yamato was not quit as impressed. He stepped back, protectively covering his wonder-struck little brother.

"Easy, Captain..." I told him. He nodded but none of the battle-ready tension left him. His eyes kept flitting back and forth between two mask-less brunettes before him. 

I returned my attention to the leader towering over me (He was obviously a head guard, he was the only on with a mask.) I cleared my throat to speak but was interrupted by the sound of metal scraping. I whipped around to voice a protest but it was already remissed. The damage was done. Yamato had drawn his sword when a guard had stepped too close for his comfort. The Icarians materialized imposing looking spears and closed in. 

Yamato lashed out expertly to defend his younger sibling, who had soon drawn his own weapon. Duke Kamiya stood dumbfounded (as usual) and his guards easily plucked him from the ground. Quickly analyzing the situation I prepared the most useful spell in my inventory for this predicament, Air Slash. This would quickly rid the Icarians of the application of their wings, but only in accordance with the fact that their avian capabilities were physics-based on that of birds as opposed to the metaphysical form of flight known as magical levitation. 

Although before I could complete the incantation, a pair of strong arms that grasped my shoulders abruptly lifted me from the terra firma. Takeru shouted with surprise and raced to knock an arrow to prevent my captor from escaping with me. Unfortunately, he failed to notice the Icarian behind him. This Icarian seemed to have a sense of humor, as he tapped Takeru on the shoulder, causing the poor boy to nearly impale me with his arrow before he, too was raised into the sky.

"Ah $|-|!+," the squire cursed as he was carried off with me.

"TAKERU! WIZARD IZUMI! MORON!" Yamato called worriedly as he sliced an Icarian's spear in half. Another slash and he clipped its wing.

The Icarian was slightly peeved at the Captain, "That was my wing, you small excuse for a being!"

Yamato's eyes narrowed on the Icarian with anger, "You kidnap my friends...*and* Duke Kamiya, and then you insult me!?" the captain said, abashed. He swung his sword fiercely.

And he hit air as the leader of the band of Icarians calmly plucked Yamato into the sky. Yamato struggled in vain for the length the flight. 

"Welcome to Delta Airlines," he muttered, finally giving up. Sarcasm saturated the air, "The in-flight movie will be Digimon2: Boku wa war game."

I didn't know what he was referring to and I really didn't care because at that moment our destination came into view. It was tremendous! The entire Icarian race was probably housed in that ONE structure. A castle had more pillars, towers, turrets, balconies, etc... than the entire castles in the known world. And it was all colored blue to blend in with the horizon. Birds and Icarians flitted in and out going about their day. An ancient civilization that no one has seen in years... And it would stay that way, as we were soon to be killed there.

The flight ended as we arrived at the extravagant diamond and gold palace structure near the center. It was intricately carved and molded into eye-pleasing figures of seraphs, cherubs, winged animals, lucky bats, and clouded cities. Jewels such as sapphires, garnet, emerald, and diamonds grazed the walls, set into pictures as eyes or wingtips. The elaboration of the Icarians amazed me. But then again, even if you are a person with wings, living in solitude from the rest of the world is boring, got to have SOMETHING to do. 

The spear-armed Icarian guards forced us forward as we walked along the absolutely stunning halls of the palace. The masked Icarian warrior led the way.

Duke Kamiya smiled at him, "Hey! Masked guy!" the moron called out, "Where are you taking us?"

The angelic warrior turned to him, "The queen will decide your punishment."

I rolled my eyes as the Duke continued, "Oh, the queen? Why don't you decide our punishment, after all, you ARE the king..."

The warrior looked taken aback, "What? How did you?"

I was shocked, as were Takeru and Yamato, "Yeah, how DID you?" Takeru asked.

Taichi smiled mischievously, "I'm a duke, I know another ruler when I see one, what I can't understand is why he's working with his warriors on such an easy mission." 

I think they were the first words I ever heard out of the Duke's mouth, which WEREN'T based entirely on naiveté. 

I noticed Yamato and Takeru were staring with their mouths hanging wide open, speechless. I, too, was without my voice at the time.

"What?" Taichi inquired, "Why are you all staring at me like that?" he looked about behind him, "Do you see Elvis?"

I sweatdropped. Yamato sweatdropped. Takeru sweatdropped. Even the guards sweatdropped.

The angelic ruler before us sighed, "You're stupid friend is correct, I am the ruler here, but the queen is in charge of all outsider affairs, now you will be silent unless you wish for the guards to slice your throats right NOW!" he thundered.

We hushed and quietly followed the Icarians down the majestic halls. 


	3. 9-12 Icarian's Riddle: The Sprite's Ori...

Disclaimer: Not mine, no money, don't sue

Disclaimer: Not mine, no money, don't sue...

For further warnings, see part 1

Also: We do not own Grandia (though we wish we did!) I'd also like to thank Tolkien, Shakespeare and the creator of Slayers for all their help! (figuratively) We do not own Slayers, Midsummer Night's Dream, or The Hobbit.

9. ~_~ YAMATO

Throne room. Dude, this WAS *the* throne room. The throne room of throne rooms. I'm betting gods don't have throne rooms like this. This was a THRONE ROOM!

I peered around the incredulous room. It was a monument to art. I felt diminished by its glory. I turned in place with my sword clanking at my side in rhythm as I took in the sight. Lots of red, purple, and bluish hues filled the room the size of the Duke's whole castle. Intricate tapestries of brave winged beings and lovely seraphim visions filled every blank wall. Silver and diamond lined every nook of carved gold statues and figures of four-to-eight-winged men and women. We walked upon emerald and ruby tiles that made up the pathway, while sapphire and amethyst tiles made the rest of the floor. Stylized symbols were etched along the ceiling wherever paintings or extravagant chandeliers did not rest. The crystalline pillars that supported the enormous room were strewn with riches and solid gold winged figures. The steps led our motley group up a dais upon which rested about twenty thrones of varying attributes, but the largest one of them was pure diamond, with ornate gems placed in strategic locations about its surfaces to form an almost living mural. Around where one might sit red and violet-tinted satins and silks formed luxurious pillows upon which rested who was obviously the queen.

She was gorgeous, she was the only eight-winged Icarian I had seen thus far, and she was just awe-inspiring. A winged helmet covered her face. I could only see her lips, but I could see she was lovely. Flowing freely from the mask were long golden tresses, which rivaled the gold-laden room in luster. She wore a complex costume of white and gold. One long glove, a half boot, ankle jewelry, a wrist glove, a slit mid-piece, golden wing-shaped sections covered the outfit. The seraph's eight wings were quite apparent, even considering the streaming violet ribbon about her body. 

I did the only thing I could think of to do: I bowed.

I would've felt silly, except of course, that all my friends, Duke Kamiya, the guards, and the king knelt with me, "My queen," the king dared to say, "Outsiders have come to our lands, they appear hostile, so we have brought them to you for your wisdom on such matters."

I felt a lump in my throat as the guards brought us forward. Even Duke Kamiya was apparently aware of how dumbfounded this place had made us. 

The queen smiled, "Angelus, you're always so serious about such things," oh, her voice was heavenly, "Come, tell me, sirs, why are you here?" she addressed us sweetly.

The lump in my throat grew, I couldn't even *begin* to speak. Wizard Izumi opened his mouth, but no sound came forth. The Duke continued to stare blatantly. 

"Uh... ma'am, we don't mean any harm..." a small voice spoke out, my younger sibling Takeru.

She turned to him and smiled breathtakingly, "Oh, that's nice to know, go on, please, young one."

Takeru coughed a bit, but cleared his throat, managing to speak for us all again, "We, uh... need a feather of yours, uh... I think... Right, Koushirou-san?"

Wizard Izumi nodded, urging Takeru to continue, "Um... can you maybe give us one and we can leave. Y'see, we need to have Icarian's prize, and we supposed that was meaning your feathers."

I smiled, the lump in my throat lessening at my brother's successfully given speech.

The queen smiled thoughtfully, "Oh, I see, I don't see why we couldn't do that for you."

Angelus spoke up abruptly, , "But, my queen, an Icarian's feather could be dangerous in the hands of the unwise, especially if your intending what I believe you are."

"Oh, you mean give them one of my feathers? Of course I was intending such, they don't want a useless ordinary feather. The 'Icarian's prize' ingredient for spells most always requires seraphim (eight-winged angel) feathers," the queen explained, and I noticed Wizard Izumi nodding in agreement.

"Well, then," the king began, "They must at least be tested, for the feather could be easily misused by the unwise. They must solve the riddle, or die."

10. ^_^!! TAKERU

She was pretty. Awe-struck, I gaped openly before noticing my brother had just kneeled for the appealing woman who was obviously the queen. Not knowing what else to do, I bowed, too.

The masked king person spoke from a bent position and addressed her, "Outsiders have come to our lands, they appear hostile, so we have brought them to you for your wisdom on such matters," he explained. 

Hostile? Us? No way! Unless, of course you count our feelings toward the Duke. 

The pretty, eight-winged queen smiled. She was really beautiful, "Angelus, you're always so serious about such things," she looked at us, "Come, tell me, sirs, why are you here?"

I held my tongue, I was a squire, so I waited for my big brother to answer. I peeked over at him, he was being quiet. Continuing my glance, I noticed Wizard Izumi was tight-lipped, too. Thinking the worst, (that the Duke might answer) I quickly decided to answer, "Uh... ma'am," I stuttered, realizing that this was harder than it seemed, "we don't mean any harm..." I squeaked.

The queen turned to look at me. Her gaze nearly froze me. The fact that she spoke directly to me was stunning, "Oh, that's nice to know, go on, please, young one," she encouraged.

I swallowed hard, "We, uh... need a feather of yours," I spat out, "uh... I think... Right, Koushirou-san?" I searched for support.

He nodded enthusiastically. Great help... I mentally rolled my eyes, but pushed on, "Um... can you maybe give us one and we can leave," I began rambling, "Y'see, we need to have Icarian's prize, and we supposed that was meaning your feathers."

I sighed with relief when the queen didn't kill me instantly, instead, she spoke pleasantly, "Oh, I see, I don't see why we couldn't do that for you."

We would have all let out are collective breath but that Angelus guy interrupted us hastily, "But, my Queen, an Icarian's feather could be dangerous in the hands of the unwise, especially if you're intending what I believe you are." 

The Queen glanced over at him questioningly, "Oh, you mean give them one of my feathers? Of course I was intending such," She continued, "they don't want a useless ordinary feather. The 'Icarian's prize' ingredient for spells most always requires seraphim feathers."

Beside me, Koushirou-san nodded his full agreement.

"Well then," the king said loudly, "They must at least be tested, for the feather could be easily misused by the unwise. They must solve the riddle, or die."

Yamato and I both looked at each other. Riddle? What riddle? No one said anything about a riddle. I'm terrible at riddles and my brother, even though he had more then his fair share of brains, wasn't exactly adept at them ether. The duke was out of the question. Nii-san must have been thinking the same thing 'cause we both turned worried look to the short red haired wizard on my left, whom look right back at us in puzzlement.

The Queen cast the King a glance that, even through the mask, I could tell was annoyed. "Fine then." She sighed, "You, young ones will be required to solve the riddle..."

"And if we present the correct reply?" Koushirou-san ventured.

"Then you will have the privilege of acquiring one of my feathers," the queen said encouragingly.

"And if we don't?" I asked weakly.

"Then you'll be proven unworthy and you'll die!" Angelus informed me harshly.

I shrunk away, the queen spoke to him, "Oh, Angelus, you're such a rule-enforcer!" she said disapprovingly.

"Queen Angela, you are taking such matters far too lightly!" he argued, "You know the seraphim feathers could do great damage under untrained hands!"

Queen Angela sighed, "I suppose," she plucked a feather from her pretty wings, "Well, here's the Prize, but first the Challenge," she smiled, then to Angelus, "You seem keen on getting them out of here, why don't you ask them the riddle?"

Angelus hmphed at the notion, "Fine, then," he turned and looked directly at me, "Are you prepared?"

I nodded for my friends pitifully.

"Very well then. Answer me this: 

Voiceless it cries,

Wingless flutters,

Toothless bites,

Mouthless mutters."

...Nani? What was this winged wonder talking about? Voiceless it cries? Toothless it bites? What could it be referring too? I looked to my brother just into to see sweat trickling down his forehead. No help there. 

Wizard Izumi called us into a huddle.

"So, guys," he said quietly, "any ideas?"

"Umm...Well," Yamato and I said in unison. The duke just stared dumbly. Thank God.

The wizard sweatdropped.

"Well, it's obviously describing something," the blonde guard squatted on the floor in thought, "But what do you know of that flutters with out wings?" 

"Or mutters with out a mouth..." I added. 

"Maybe its a type of food?" the duke put in.

We all pointedly ignored him.

Koushirou sighed. "Well, lets accumulate our thoughts and I'm sure we'll discover the solution."

So for the next half-hour we threw stuff out on the table and brain stormed. Yamato seemed to think that we weren't getting anywhere and would glance back nervously at the King, whom spent most of that half hour burning holes in the back of our heads. But I had my hopes...so I kept on trying to give the short- haired wizard some ideas. Some of them were good and some not so good. Occasionally we would manage to get a chuckle out of the Queen with some of more silly ones, as she observed us.

When we hit the hour mark we began to run out material...

Disheartened, Yamato sat down on the floor with a loud clank from his armor, "This blows," he muttered.

Izumi's head snapped up at that, he stared wide-eyed at my brother. I looked to the wizard to Yamato and back again, confused. 

"What?" he asked a little indignantly.

"That's it, Captain, you're brilliant!"

"Well, tell me something I don't know. But that doesn't explain why you staring at me like..."

The young sorcerer suddenly stood up and strode quickly to the dais were the Queen sat, waiting patiently.

"I have the answer, Your Highness." He said confidently.

The seraphim smiled brightly, "Is that so? Please do go on." 

Angelus snorted.

Koushirou-san ignored him, "The answer is: Wind. The wind cries and mutters through the trees, flutters with out wings and bites when it's cold."

There was a long pause and we all held our breath, awaiting the angelic woman's response. At first she said nothing but instead frowned a bit and began to lift her hands. Afraid she would strike us dead I closed my eyes tightly...only to open them a moment later in bewilderment. She was clapping.

"Very good, young wingless-ones!" she laughed, " I'm am very much impressed. You're the first ones to answer correctly in a long time. You have earned the Icarian's prize."

A small cheer from some of the gathered nobility came forth. I heard some applause.

We all sighed with relief and grinned widely as Izumi graciously accepted the feather from her with a courteous bow. 

11. ^_~ KOUSHIROU

One down, three to go. An Astral beacon, the blood of a magic tree, and...

"I always seem to disremember the fourth item," I stated to myself.

"The tears from the flying mythic creature, Kou-san," Takeru stated.

We were sitting at a table in small tavern in File Village, the food wasn't perfect, but the price was good, and we weren't complaining about its large portions.

I nodded, "Well, I suppose considering the time it took us to get the first item, that we should hurry our search. This first ingredient took us three days to get there, seize it, and return down the mountain. If Sensei Wizard Mon was correct, we only have four more days to complete the reverse spell on Duchess Takenouchi's curse."

Duke Taichi burst out suddenly, "Oh my poor Sora-chan!"

I instinctively rolled my eyes as Takeru reluctantly consoled the grieving Duke.

Taichi spoke enthusiastically this time, "But you're right, we must hurry to save my Sora-chan! What do you suggest, Wizard?"

I blinked, the O mighty Duke wanted advice? Oh well, "I propose that we disjoin into three parties to search for the remaining artifacts and converge again at File Village to conserve time in obtaining the items."

Captain Yamato agreed with my exhortation, "Yes, that is a good idea, but what would the groups be? There are four of us, and three items. Also, we don't even know where to go to start looking for them. You said you were debating the possibilities while we were climbing down Infinity Mountain. So what's your opinion?"

I pondered each of his inquisitions, "Well, initially, I would say that the divisions would be as follows: Yamato, Izumi, and Taichi and Takeru."

"WHAT!??!!?" Takeru and Yamato burst out at once, "You can't stick me with the Duke! He'll end up killing me!" Takeru protested.

Yamato shook his head, "No, I'm sorry, but I have to protect my charge here, Takeru will come with me."

"But the Duke will surely die without someone to fix his mistakes," I stated.

The captain nodded, "I know, that's the point."

I stopped, "Oh yeah..."

The Duke continued to stare blankly, smiling as if he agreed fully.

"As for your other question, I have discerned that the Astral Beacon must be an Orihalcon statue, I just can't think of any other astral implement that serves as a beacon. I think the best place to locate one of those would be its manufacturers, spirits. Duke Kamiya, I'll assign this one to Your Grace. The best place to find a magic tree would be in the magic woods, I would think, so that should be your destination, Captain. I'll somehow find the flying mythic creature, even though I don't know where to start. Alright then?" I asked, finally set on what to do.

"Hai!" Takeru called happily. 

"I guess," Yamato agreed.

"This is for you, SORA-CHAN!" the Duke 'enthusiastically' cried.

Sighing, I forced a grin, "Well, let's go."

12. -_-* TAICHI

I was quite wet, I don't believe this suits a Duke at all! That stupid river SURELY must've plotted against me to get my entire attire of fine robes mudded and soaked! 

Appalled though I was at its snidely behavior, I forged on through the tangles of the faerfolk territory. The Wizard said the best place to get an Orihalcon was from the spirits, and the only spirits I know are dead, so I decided to visit the faerfolk instead!

This was quite a nasty trip indeed, though, the forest seemed to attack me at every turn. Those wicked roots, sticking out of the ground like that! And then when the rosebush pricked me just because I picked a flower! I was particularly scared when those killer tapirs tore at my cape! But what was really nagging at me was that nasty river, it reminded me of the time a young knight and his page were working for me and then that moat incident happened. I wonder what became of those two...?

Oh, it doesn't matter... I scoured the forest, searching for what Wizard Izumi explained this 'Orihalcon statue' was... if there really was such a thing. This supposed 'Orihalcon' was supposedly a statuette of a supposed 'lady' who wore a supposed 'shrine maiden robe.' Also, this supposed statue was made of a supposed magical 'ore' for which one could supposedly use as a spiritual beacon.

But who was I to question a supposed 'wizard' about such things? I looked high and low, left and right, methodically and at random, but I still found no signs of this supposed statuette. I felt frustrated that the wizard could possibly think of giving me misinformation about how to find this 'Orihalcon'. I was an expert at finding things so therefore the wizard must be at fault for this trouble I was having. Not knowing what else to do, though, I wandered about the forest, checking the trees and shrubbery for clues to the whereabouts of this supposed 'statuette'.

"But Rina, how come YOU get to give Oberon the cockleshell for his wedding present!?" 

Huh?

"Because, Gaurri, *I* deserve to give Oberon the cockleshell because *I* am ten times as loyal to him as you, and the cockleshell shows my respect more than your gift of a pathetic Orihalcon statue!"

Orihalcon? I know that word! I peered from around a tree and was quite amazed by what I saw.

"But Rina, how come *you* always get to give the Faerie king the best gifts? I'm a devoted Faerie, too!" 

It was two small, butterfly-winged creatures. Pixie-shaped, and apparently spirits! One of them, which I assumed was male, had long golden blonde locks, which reached down to his mid-back. The other, more aggressive, female one sported flaming red hair tied back with a bandanna. Overall, they were both roughly the size of songbirds, and were having a dispute about *something*. 

The red-haired one spoke, "Oh, Gaurri, even though the Orihalcon is a useful, practical gift the king could have many uses for as a spiritual beacon, the cockleshell is just so much more valuable and therefore the only gift which can convey my devotion!"

It was a political debate! I'm very skilled at politics, I'm sure I can settle this easily! Then I'll get back to looking for whatever it was I was looking for. But, upon remembering that I WAS looking for something I searched the ground quickly to see if I could find it, when suddenly... "AH HA!"

The two spirits turned to look at me, "huh?"

I found a shell! I must've misplaced it when the river attacked me! I looked up at the two winged spirits. Do spirits have wings? "Ho, spirits!" I called.

The blonde one turned to his companion, "Rina, are we spirits?"

Rina replied harshly, "NO! We are NOT spirits! We're faeries, and proud of such. What do you want, mortal?"

I smiled, "Well, I think I can settle your debate!" I stated with the calm all great rulers should show.

"Really?" the blonde one, who I think was named Gaurri, asked.

I nodded.

"Okay, then," Rina said, "Solve it."

I stared hard at the two of them, piercing them with my all-knowing gaze, "But first, I have one question..."

"What?" Rina asked.

I continued to gaze furiously, "What was the problem?" 

"Ugh!" Rina suddenly collapsed in pain, clutching her stomach. 

"Well, you see," Gaurri began to explain, "Our king, Oberon is getting married and we can't decide who should get to give him the extremely valuable cockleshell and who should give him the 'practical' Orihalcon."

"I see," I nodded gravely, "Well, I think the only solution to this is thirty lashings and life in prison!"

"WHAT?" Rina asked, stupefied at my brilliant answer that always had seemed to satisfy the people of my court whenever I was asked to pass judgement.

Gaurri nodded, "I see, makes perfect sense."

"GAURRI!" Rina yelled, "You stupid mortal, how does that solve our problem?"

"Uuuuhhh..." I reached up to scratch my head.

"Hey!" Rina called suddenly, "What's that?"

I looked at where she pointed, in my hand, there was that thing I was looking for, "Oh, this, it's a cockleshell. So?"

Rina sweatdropped, "oi..."

"HEY! That's a cockleshell! GIVE IT TO ME!! GIMME!" Gaurri yelled, snatching the shell from hand and dropping his statuette thing on my toe.

"Ow..."

"Hey! Rina! Look, I've got a shell, too!" the blonde 'faerie' boasted.

"Oh, yeah, well mine's bigger!" Rina, the other 'faerie' argued.

"No way!" Gaurri said, flittering off towards where I assumed Oberon waited.

"Yes way!" the flame-haired 'faerie' called back.

I sighed, "Spirits..." 

I massaged my injured toe where Gaurri had dropped his Orihalcon statuette on my foot. I picked up the magical lady in shrine maiden robes astral beacon and walked on, trying to remember what Izumi had sent me for.

"This stupid statuette is heavy..." I complained to no one. Not wanting to deal with it anymore, I wound up and chucked the cumbersome trinket into the forest with a loud "WHACK!"

"OUCH!" I heard a screaming voice. Thinking it another spirit, I dashed towards it to see if he knew where I could find an Orihalcon, which I just remembered as what Izumi sent me to find.

I happened upon two blonde males, though, mortal, not spirit, "Hello, there!" I called, then went to ask, "Do you know... where...?" I suddenly recognized the two boys as Yamato and Takeru.

They turned around, pure shock on their faces. I smiled, letting them know I was okay. 

What happened next was so touching, Takeru couldn't contain his joy at seeing my safe arrival and burst into tears, collapsing at his brother's feet.

Even dear Captain Yamato could hold in his precious tears of relief for my safety. We sat there together for two hours, just reveling in our happiness.

"He's alive..." Takeru wailed, nurturing a sore spot on the back of his head where an Orihalcon surely must have hit him... I wonder how that happened?

I smiled, "Yes, Takeru, you needn't be so worried, I'll always be here for you..."

Rina and Gaurri do not belong to me, nor do they belong in this story... but hey, at 5:00 AM with no caffeine, see how YOU fair when you're short on names ^_~ Oberon was just fun to put in here...


	4. 13-16 Plight of a Slave Girl: Prank Cal...

Ethan Frome

Disclaimer: Not mine, no money, don't sue...

For further warnings, see part 1

Also: We do not own Grandia (though we wish we did!) I'd also like to thank Tolkien, Shakespeare and the creator of Slayers for all their help! (figuratively) We do not own Slayers, Midsummer Night's Dream, or The Hobbit.

13. ^_~ KOUSHIROU

Sigh... where do I start? I thought, pondering the location of the hidden treasure I had sent myself to find. The flying mythic creature, I didn't know the legend, I didn't even know if anyone had even SEEN the flying mythic creature...

*Well, DUH, Koushirou, if you don't know, find out! There are plenty of scholars around File Village... Okay, so there's maybe two... But that's more than enough to learn about a child's legend, ne?* I pondered on the idea.

Yes, that's the ticket! I chomped down another bite of food, "Mmm, these portions and comestibles are very acceptable indeed! Attendant, may I be served another helping of these fine edibles?

A brown-haired woman with a white ribbon in her hair and an okonomiyaki-seller's outfit walked over to my table carrying a tray, "Hey, sugar, how are you doin'?" the waitress asked.

"I'm quite well, thank you. But I'm in a bit of a fix," I explained.

"Really? Is there anyway I can help?" she asked.

I paused for a moment, "Well, I suppose if you could direct me to the nearest possible scholar in this community so that I might enlist his services?"

The woman smiled, "A scholar? I suppose the nearest to here would be Sage Gennai, he's just down the road a ways..." she gestured.

I gobbled down my meal fervently, "My thanks, ma'am," With that, I dropped down the fee and a healthy tip for the waitress, and turned for the village concourse.

Once upon the streets, I headed straight for where the waitress had directed me. I needed to hurry if I was complete my mission before the week's end.

"Sing another one." A gruff voice commanded about a 6 meters to my left.

" Look, I'm tired, I'm hungry, and that would make your 7th one." Came the reply, " Can't I take a break or something?" 

I stopped and turned my gaze to the entrance to yet another tavern. This one looked a bit more seedy then the previous one. The interior was darker and probably attracted fellows with questionable intentions. (Thieves, murderers, bad cooks, evil wizards and drug dealers) I took a cautious step inside to inspect what all the commotion was about. In the center of the dark musty room amiss several dirty tables sat the source. 

For once I was at a complete loss of words. Sitting atop an empty table was the most beautiful woman in all creation. She possessed large ruby-shaded eyes and long caramel-colored hair pulled back on her head with a band. Two locks framed a delicate, pale face. She was clothed in a long green dress that reached her ankles and hugged her curves. The silken fabric was embroidered with gold flowers. Overall a very stunning effect.

"No, I didn't blow 5,000 gold pieces on you so *you* could take a break." 

That broke me out of my trance. I blinked a few times to clear my head and concentrated on the situation before me. Upon encountering the young woman I failed to notice the two tall imposing men sitting to either side of her in ill-repaired wooden chairs. 5,000 gold pieces? Slavers?

The girl sneered at him, "Then good luck getting another song out of me," with out warning her head snapped back violently as the man who had spoken to her before stood and brought his hand across her cheek. 

The other tyrant snickered, "She's got a lot of spirit, Myotis."

Myotis, a sinister looking man with long blonde hair, glared at his companion. "I'm afraid so, I'm beginning to think I've been gypped."

I suppressed the urge to jump in and intervene. No doubt in my mind now, the girl was some sort of slave. The thought left an iron ball in the pit of my stomach, and my blood felt as if it would start to boil. How could such a ...flower get involved with slavery? What a bass question... not willingly of course! That practice was intolerable, unethical and immoral... trading and selling human beings like brass trinkets... 

The girl bravely sat back up and straitened proudly, as if she were the queen herself. Even sporting a fresh bruise on her pale face, she gave off a feel of loftiness. I was impressed. This maiden was not to be taken lightly. 

Myotis's friend snickered again at his difficulty in handling caramel-haired girl, "And guts too,"

"Shut up, Devi..." He turned to his slave and growled a growl that even the Duke could understand.

She refused to flinch. Incredibly admirable.

"I've put up with her bullshit for about a year and she still hasn't broken. If anything, she's gotten worse." Myotis griped, "I'm fixing to sell her. Even all the money she's brought in singing isn't worth the trouble."

Devi blinked owlishly, "Sell Mimi?"

Mimi? So that was the beauty's name. 'Beautiful truth' I realized what it had meant and repeated it over in my head a few times, enjoying the sound of it before filing it away for future use. Of course it took a moment for the man's statement to ring true, I being too wrapped in trying to commit her to memory... They planed to SELL her! She could wind up in even worse than a seedy tavern! I resolved to not let this happen.

Before I could make a move the blonde began to speak again. "Yes I think I will. I'll put her on the auction block tomorrow."

Devi leered at Mimi and she lifted a delicate eyebrow at him and flipped her hair over her shoulder. "Well, I know someone who would gladly take her off your hands..."

Myotis leaned forward, interested. "Is that so..." 

The thought hit me that he could very well sell her right here and now... I took a deep breath. I had to do something...

I stepped into the tavern fully and cleared my throat. 

Three sets of eyes turned to me. 

Okay, Izumi, good job. You've got their attention so...Say something! "I'd like meals and boarding for the night, if it's available, sir."

Myotis looked at Devi and said quietly, "We'll discuss this later." Then he returned his gaze to me putting on a 'pleasant' smile. "Why of course! For how long, Young sir?" 

"Just for tonight, thank you."

"And meals?"

"Hai."

"Okay. That would be 200 gold."

I blanched, "200! I could go down the street, get boarding, 3 meals and free run of the bar for that much! 100."

Myotis gave me a look, "Don't insult me boy, this a fine establishment! We only provide the best here."

Mimi snickered openly.

The owner seemed to be pretty happy that the only people there at this time of day were the wenches and the cooks (whom were busy in the kitchen making... something...) otherwise we would have made a scene, bad for business. 

"I'm sure, sir." I replied, pleased with the girl's amusement. "120, then."

"150, but only dinner."

"Deal," I said and handed him the money. I wasn't very confident in the cook's abilities anyway. The only reason I'm staying here is to get close to...I mean help a slave girl I don't even know... 

But I'm supposed to be searching for the flying mythic creature! I really don't have time to be fooling around with other people's affairs... But who was I to knowingly leave her to her fate when I could change it. I have to do something. 

14. $_$ MIMI

"Wench!"

"Mimi," I corrected. "My *NAME* is Mimi Tachikawa."

Surprisingly, he didn't slap me for the rebuke. He simply glared at me and growled, "I call you what ever I want... Show this man to his room."

"Yes, Sir." I said mockingly. He had the nerve to put me back to work when he just said he was going to sell me off. Well, isn't that great? I guess I'd better watch myself or he'll sell me to a whorehouse. Or even worse: that Devi character. I've heard what he does to his slaves... It makes me shiver just thinking about it.

I slid off the table and patted over to the young man. Gesturing for him to follow. I rushed daintily up the stairs to the second level, standing at the top waiting for him to catch up.

As he climbed I actually really LOOKED at him for the first time. He had short spiky auburn hair that stuck up and hung at odd angles, deep ebony eyes. His garb was an ensemble of: A long sleeved tunic and strait pants all done in deep brown and purples, a cloak hung about his shoulders attached with a jewel that mirrored the color of his hair, A similar jewel donned his belt. 

But the thing that really caught my attention was the way the air about him crackled with power. He must be a wizard then. But what would a wizard be doing here? Oh sure, we get our fair share of magicians and such but only because they're down on their luck and wanna get wasted or something. This one looks pretty well off. He probably has an ulterior motive... 

He made it the top of the stairs and I showed him down the short hallway to his room. I noticed that he kept casting me sidelong glances. 

"Here's your room, Mister..."

"Izumi..." he seemed to blush a little, "B-but just call me Koushirou."

I smiled sweetly, "Alright, Kou-kun. I'm sure a distinguished Wizard like you didn't come here because of the food." I gave him curious look, "What are you REALLY here for?" 

He had the grace to blush and look surprised, "You're very perceptive." He replied in a smooth tenor voice. Boy I really like his voice... "I'm very impressed."

I smiled smugly, "Well, we bards have a way of doing that. We're like news-reporters, we'll do anything for a story." I shot him a knowing look, "And I can tell from looking at you that you could afford room and meals for 4 people over at Ucchan's, down the street. You wouldn't stay at this trash heap unless you had a reason. So spill it."

He laughed, I decided I enjoyed his laugh, it sounded like a rare thing and that I was privileged to witness it. 

"So you're a bard?" He said, after he calmed down, obviously avoiding the subject. Fine with me if he wants to play that game. It's just another excuse for me to see him later. 

"Not anymore. I used to travel all over the kingdom and get good money singing and playing on street corners, in taverns, and even for the occasional noble," I explained, remembering what it was like outside this hell-hole.

"What happened?" Kou-kun asked, he seemed concerned.

"Let's just say I was in the wrong place at the wrong time. The next thing I know is that I'm up for sale. It's been that way for a while now..." I told him, carefully, not wanting to be too informative.

He seemed saddened by this knowledge. The plot thickens... I shrugged it off. I've told the story before. It's not like I PLAN to stay this way for the rest of my life. I just need to find the suitable means of escape... preferably before Myotis finds a buyer. 

I felt eyes on me and I came out of my reverie. Kou-kun had leaned against the doorframe and was staring at me in a dazed fashion. It made me kind of uncomfortable, "W-what?" I sputtered, confused.

He blushed, as if just realizing he was staring, "Huh? Oh, uh, just thinking..." he smiled, his hand behind his head.

I peered at him from my position next to him from outside his door, "Oh, so then.."

I was cut short by a LOUD crashing sound of shattering glass and squeals of pain, "OWIE!"

"Oh no," I muttered and rushed from Izumi's door to find out what had broken. When I happened upon the scene of the accident, I didn't approve of what I'd found.

"PATA!!!!!!!!!" I screamed, completely angered at the small animal lying dazed on the floor in a mess of broken glass. It was an antique that my 'boss' Myotis had decided to buy at great expense to make the place more 'classy.' It was a laugh, but still, it would probably be MY fault, even though I had nothing to do with it.

"What? What happened?" Kou-kun had followed me, I was surprised.

"Oh," I stated, and pointed at the mess on the floor. 

"What's THAT?" he asked, pointing at Pata.

"Oh," I said, "That's Pata, my pet of sorts since he found me here."

The little brown on white animal stood up and pattered his way towards me on his little hoofed feet.

"Come here, Pata," I cooed, and picked him up gently and snuggled him close to me, "Oh, Pata, DO YOU KNOW WHO HAS TO CLEAN THIS MESS UP!?!?!?!?!?!?!?" 

Kou-kun reeled from my sudden outburst. Pata on the other hand looked up at me indignantly, "Well, it was dark and I couldn't see the stupid vase!" he spat in his high-pitched voice.

"KYAA!" I heard the wizard shout, "It talks! I've heard of talking animals, but never that were intelligent enough to correspond with normal humans, but then again I suppose he could be a human under an animal curse that was given the ability to speak, but that wouldn't make sense why someone would curse and then bless the same person and if that's the case why?" He rambled on, obviously confused. 

I laughed, it was just too funny to see the obviously intelligent wizard dumbfounded by my little pet, "Actually, I hadn't given him much thought as to HOW he came to be as much as HOW he comes to be so much trouble!"

"Hey!" Pata squeaked from my arms, "That's not fair, Mimi-chan!"

And that was when the trouble started. 

15. -_- JOE

I was bored. I watched my victim slowly turning to stone. She looked bored, too. I hadn't really gotten to do anything for a good fifteen minutes now, so I decided to revert to my favorite hobby: calling the queen and hanging up on her. 

I moved past my lawn ornament of a victim and to my magic scrying pool. It was already filled with water, so I dropped some alchemic elements into it as is bubbled up and glowed with energy as it contacted the royal woman.

~Somewhere in the huge castle, the queen's magic mirror shimmers and buzzes loud enough for her to hear. She grudgingly got up and answered it.~

"Hello?" the queen's face appeared in the rippling waters of the scrying pool.

I snickered to myself, "Is your refrigerator running?" I asked ominously.

On her side, the queen sighed, "Yes..." she answered, playing right into my hands...

"Then you'd better go catch it!" I punned, whooping with laughter.

Queen Kari looked back at me through the pool, "That was almost funny the first time I heard it, you dunce of an alchemist!"

I was insulted, I thought hard to come up with that one, "HEY!" 

She looked back at me, "What do you want, anyway?"

"Nothing much," I began, "Just your castle, servants, all your lands, your army, and basically control of the world. That's not too much to ask, is it?"

The queen rolled her eyes, "Sure, no problem... I'll see what I can do. While I'm working on that, I don't suppose you could change my brother's wife back into a person?" she asked condescendingly. 

I grinned, "I'm not stupid, dear queen, merely psychotic. It's one of my better traits, especially for the future ruler of the world."

"I'm sure," she said, sarcasm thick in her voice.

"Don't get haughty with me," I snapped at her, "I'm in charge of your idiot brother's duchy, I've got enough power to challenge you at this point."

The queen nodded, "True, but you won't win, and you know it."

She has seen through my bluff, but this had only made me more determined to wipe that smug smile off of her face, "Ha! You saw how easily I took over your brother's lands, I could do the same to you," I threatened.

"My brother is an idiot," she stated simply.

"You noticed that, too?"

"Yup."

"I feel for you."

"I know, sad, isn't it?"

"But anyway," I stopped the condolences.

"You're not done yet?" she sighed.

"Hmm...Okay. I'm done. For now..." I waved my hand through the pool to end the connection. 

"MHAHAHAHAHA!" I sprinted to the doorway.

The Duchess rolled her eyes, "NOW what are you doing?"

I smiled evilly and yelled out into the room beyond, "Deploy the TROOPS! MHAHAHAHAHAHA!"

16. ~_~ YAMATO

It was two hours since Duke Kamiya had hit Takeru in the back of the head with the Orihalcon statue, and we had just finished getting over the fact that the Duke (of all people) would be 'escorting us' throughout the remainder of this journey. The fact that he didn't realize he'd thrown away an Orihalcon statue was just... UGH!

I was... disturbed, here I was, with my brother Takeru, sobbing on the cold ground from the pain of seeing how well the Duke had faired at his task, while my party had yet to discover any clues to the location of a magic tree.

This was not only bad luck, but it made us look bad that idiot Kamiya had out-done us. He'd found an Orihalcon statue and hadn't even realized it. It made me incredibly angry and depressed all at once, "YOU IDIOT!" I screamed, sick of him, "YOU HAD JUST *THROWN AWAY* THE ORIHALCON!"

The Duke smiled, I wanted so much to wipe that idiotic grin from his face, I hadn't become captain of the guard by putting up with THIS. Still, Taichi continued on, "What's an Orihalcon? I just threw away a cumbersome stone, and then I found you, my dear companions," he grinned cheerfully.

Being thoroughly enraged, I could barely subside the emotion, "Nevermind, Your Grace, what's important is that we found the statue, and that NOW we should find the Magic Tree's Blood," I explained 'calmly'. 

Takeru finally composed himself from his whimpering heap on the dirt, "Well, to do that, Izumi said to use our magic sense to find the tree, ne?"

I smiled, "Yes, that's right, bro, that's a good start. I suppose we should just continue to search until it picks something up. Well, O fearless leader, are you coming?" I jumped right into the mission, remembering the time in which we had to complete it.

The idiot Duke stood up proudly, "Alright, troops, ONWARD!!!"

Sigh...I muttered to Takeru, "Next time you're out hunting for birds... aim low." I gestured at what the Duke jokingly referred to as 'his head'.

We continued our search through the magical forest where I guessed we would find this stupid tree. At first, the annoying pinging which rang from the Orihalcon stung in my ears a bit. This distraction made it hard to track anything at first, but gradually, Takeru managed to help fine-tune it to block out the statuette. With this clear, we were able to concentrate on scouring through branches, brush, brambles, and broken twigs. 

It was an hour later we picked up something.

"What was that?" I asked, suddenly, picking it up. It was like...well...Its really hard to explain...It starts as a pricking sensation that works up your spine and spreads over your skin. Make any sense?

"I think that's the magic sense," Takeru explained. 

"It gets stronger from..." I paused, testing, "This way," I pointed East, over a thicket of pines. 

My page nodded in agreement already headed in that direction.

"For SORA-CHAN!" The Duke screamed with pep I'd never appreciate.

~In a small Duchy outside Queen Kari's lands, Duchess Takenouchi sneezed.~

We cautiously trudged into the forest, deeper with every thud of our footfalls. It was Takeru who noticed it first. He was the one who pointed out that there was another sound than our footsteps as we neared the source of our magic pinging.

As we got even CLOSER, I could begin to make out music and then WORDS to that melody.

"...Shining in the night sky like a silver boat, the beautiful moon reflects my tears of love and hate..." the voices were happy and drunk.

I was still disturbed.

We crept nearer to the 'supposed' party, as the Duke put it, and we came upon a rather interesting sight. 

It was beautiful...The queer singing was from a large festival. At least that's what it looked like. Flowers and lights of every color of the rainbow where strung up, lining the trees and hanging on poles. On the ground was a ring of stones that glowed mystically in the lamplight. And everywhere were faerfolk, dancing, singing, laughing and...drinking. Faeries, elves, and various other races mingled and basically looked like they where having fun. 

I recognized it immediately. This was one situation I hadn't counted on, a faerie dance.

The Duke had the sense to whisper, "Oh, this must be Oberon's wedding!"

My younger sibling peered at him, "How do you know what it is!?"

"Well, the two spirits I met on this road were on their way to this ceremony when I happened across that funny rock," he gestured at the Orihalcon.

Takeru seethed, "It's an Orihalcon, not a rock. There are no spirits in this forest, only faerfolk."

I added, "The two can't even exist together, they negate each other," I continued to take in the surroundings. I knew that faerie events were not ones mortals EVER wanted to attend. One could end up trapped in revelry for eons, killed on the spot, or taken into slavery, especially if any faerie took a liking to you. 

I told this to the Duke, and reminded Takeru. "Okay, Nii-san," he replied obediently.

"HEY RINA, GAURRI!" The Duke suddenly burst up out of hiding spot in the bushes and rushed over to two small pixies hovering in the air, holding cockleshells.

"AAAH! NO!" Takeru gasped. 

The faerfolk stopped the festival all at once. Silence filled the void that was once music. Innumerable sets of eyes focused upon us.

"Rina, look! It's that idiot!" 


	5. 17 Fairy Parties: Gifts for the Queen

Ethan Frome

17. ~_~ YAMATO

This sucked. This really really sucked. If I thought being brought before the Icarian Ruler was nerve wracking, then THIS was down right terrifying. 

Due to the Duke's big-ass-mouth, every imp, dwarf, pixie, sprite, elf, nymph, gnome, etc.... they had seen us, and before Takeru could even pull an arrow out of his quiver to knock it, we had been seized and bound fast. 

I was just a bit upset. Faeries scared me, I had encountered them before. I had hoped I'd never have to deal with them again. It was the time I first found out about magic sense. Because of the gift that my brother and I had been given, my life was saved that time. I was hoping it would help us this time, too. 

At the present moment, though, I was 'being tended to' by several faerie hand-servants.

"Oh, he'll make a GREAT wedding present for Titania-sama! Oh, look, green is JUST his color!" a pink one tinkered.

A pale blue one piped up, "Oh, yes, but this little one's golden hair is MUCH better for her highness!" she gestured at my little brother.

Another three faeries were tending to Taichi's hair, "What IS this? A cactus?"

A green spoke up, "No, I think it's a bird's nest!"

A yellow glowing pixie sighed, "I hope King Oberon doesn't kill us for giving him this THING!"

But as I was saying, this terrified me. The pixies had covered my brother, the idiot and I with ribbons of various colors and sizes over our clothing. They tied bows over our chests and the base of our backs, encircled ribbons around our boots and hands, and created a sash about our necks. All in all, I felt like a gift-wrapped schoolgirl.

What scared me the most about the outfits was the way they had to use magically enchanted hair bows to tame Kamiya's mane....

Even then, a good portion of the faerfolk stared at him in absolute dread and horror. A few of them even whimpered and fell to the ground, immobile. 

I, on the other hand, fell to glaring at him. Very hard. Every so often my hands twitched. I could almost feel myself wringing his pencil thin neck that held his incredibly hollow head. But, no...Some dreams don't come true, I guess...

I winced as a dark blue faery and a deep crimson one alighted on my shoulders, two others doing the same to my little bro. They avoided Kamiya at all costs. 

"Alright, then, come on, move it," The blue one said. 

The red one smiled cheerfully. "Yeah! On to the presence of King Oberon!!" 

A yellow one spoke up from Takeru's shoulder. "The King will be very pleased with us!"

The two circling 'His Grace' sweatdropped. "We're dead, you know..."

The other sighed and nodded hopelessly. "Yea..." 

Well...skipping a good many lamentations of those two faeries and exclamations of the others, we were finally led to stand in our...overly ornate outfits before who must've been King Oberon. 

He was an impressive figure. He had cool gray eyes that seemed to pierce into your soul, chestnut hair curled about his face and ears (which were, the ears that is, quite long), tall (taller then Stupid and I, that's for sure.) and obviously of great physical health. 

Of course the image was ruined by the fact that he was totally and utterly wasted.

"Soo.." He started in an annoyingly Irish accent, slurring his words together, "Wha' be these mortals that ye 'ave brought 'afore me?"

A few Faeries prodded us to kneel before the chestnut-haired Oberon. "They're human slaves we've brought as a wedding gift to your Majesties!" 

Suddenly a glittering white faery appeared. She (I think..) smiled delightedly. "Oh, how wonderful!" 'She' exclaimed. 

Suddenly she blinked and flittered a few feet closer, then blanched. "But what, pray tell...is *that*..?!?" Here she trembled and pointed to Kamiya, who was looking off into space happily as he had been doing this entire ordeal. I was faintly surprised that Takeru had remained silent, but then...That might have been due to the large ribbon covering his mouth...

Back to the happenings on hand, the 'Queen', as I assumed she was, was still pointing to Kamiya, pure fear flashing across her hardly-discernable features. 

"That's a mortal, Your Majesty,." one of the Faeries said quietly.

I rolled my eyes, a ghoul more like. 

"It resembles more of a demon..." She sniffed. (Perceptive isn't she?) "Anyway," she turned up her nose and examined my brother and I. She seemed to come into clarity as she faced us. Titania had sharp beautiful features that seemed to shift and change. (Don't ask me. I thought it was weird, too.) But her eyes remained constant, a fluid purple. Her body was draped with a filmy robe that dragged behind her and glinted in the lamplight. Ebony hair flowed down her back and hung in long strands into her face.

Looking me over with almond-shaped eyes, Titania smiled sweetly. "Well...Now this one is very exceptional. Quite lovely..." She reached out a long willowy hand for my prized hair. I flinched back slightly, avoiding her. I didn't like *anyone* touching my hair.

Oberon laughed drunkenly at this. "You have too much of a love for mortals, My dear..."

She looked at him with disdain; "They are fascinating. If you would take to time to observe, you might agree."

"Well I don't."

"Suit yourself."

They struck me as mismatch. I don't think they're relationship is going to last. Wait a minute! I shouldn't be thinking about marital (in my opinion martial: word games are fun!) problems! I needed to be getting us out of this! 

The entire time I was in the presence of the faerfolk my Magic sense was going through the roof. But here in the face of the King and Queen my system had to filter the information to keep from overwhelming me. In other words...they were very powerful. How I planned to get away was... beyond me at the moment.

Finished making her point to her new husband, Titania returned to examining her wedding gifts. (A.K.A. us) "Uh…He's so close minded sometimes." She turned her gaze to Takeru and removed the ribbon from his mouth. "My, you're a young one, I must say. How old are you, dear?"

Takeru just stared at her wide-eyed.

"Twelve." I supplied. My voice didn't shake. Go me.

My page blinked once and threw me a confused glance but said nothing. He was older than that, I knew, but I had my reasons. 

The fey woman blink, "My you ARE a young one. It'll be a bit before you'll be useful for anything other then a hand servant. But you do have promise…" She smiled and thanked the Faeries hovering on Takeru's shoulders for their thoughtfulness. They smiled between each other; proud of the praise they had received.

Oberon snorted, fingering the cockleshells he had been presented with earlier, "Mortal's are so short-lived anyway. Does it even make a difference?" 

"Of course it makes a difference!" the queen huffed, "Humans have a peculiar maturing process. You can't just mate with one at any age. It's obscene." 

Well. That clears up my use. Though I still wanted to know what they planned to do with the Duke. Surly he wouldn't be used the same way. *That* also would be obscene. I dismissed the thought quickly. It was revolting. 

Anyway, back to reality. Titania had moved on to me.

I stared up at the regal figure, not really enraptured by her beauty or stunned by her power, but more terrified of the look on her face. It reminded me of the look a hyena gives a sick wildebeest with two broken legs. 

It was then that mouth suddenly moved without the aid of my own brain, "Hungry?"

Titania seemed taken aback that I had actually said THAT. I mirrored those thoughts.

"Well, well, at least this one talks," she spoke to the faeries who had become my 'benefactors'. 

The two beamed, "Well, you should have heard the words he was using earlier. He had a lot to say then," they stated as if it made me a better gift than anything else did.

I had another urge to suddenly spit out a sarcastic remark, but I know that speaking out of turn to faeries is bad. Very bad. Incredibly bad. PAINFULLY bad.

Titania smiled, "That's very good, thank you, I'll enjoy this gift," she paused (probably for dramatic effect, faeries do that, I've noticed) "I'll enjoy it greatly."

Not wanting to stick around to learn all the ways she was going to enjoy me, I decided to plead my case. (Also, in case I needed to use the Duke as a bargaining chip, she shouldn't have a chance to look too closely at him). 

"Hold it."

All eyes turned to me. 

"I've got a problem with this." I stated firmly. Good opening, Yamato, now what? Think, stupid… "You see," I continued, trying my best to keep my voice from cracking, "We had no intention of coming across your celebration. It was the Duke's fault. So could you keep him and let me and my brother go?" I gushed that last part in my rush to get it all out before I lost my gall. 

From beside me, my brother cheered quietly. On the other hand, the reactions I got from the faeries were just a bit different. 

There was a collective gasp from the gathered faeries, shocked that I had spoken to the Queen directly.

Oberon just laughed.

And once again, it was Titania who scared me.

She leered at me, "I like you." 

I blanched. 

"You've got balls." She traveled downward as if to emphasize the point. "You have spunk, I hope you carry that on to other things."

I gulped, "That's for me to know and you to find out. But would you PLEASE listen to me this time? We're on a very important mission (sort of) to save a Duchy. Which, by the way, this Duke here owns, so keep him, he's much more useful than Takeru or me," I spouted hopefully.

"Mortal problems are not our concern." Oberon snorted into his cup.

Titania shot him a look™. "Shut up, I like him, Oberon."

"Big deal, it's just a MORTAL!" He shouted back.

Now *this* was good! I could use this.

"Don't raise your voice to me!" Titania yelled.

"Oh HUSH, woman!" Oberon shot.

Then the insults began. About three faeries surrounded Takeru and covered his ears.

"You %^^^*#^*#%*!"

"%&#^&* you!"

"&*&((&((*&^&^#% ^&#^&^ and %^&# you %&%# so ^%&* ^%$##^ because %^%$% &^$^er!"

"#%^%^* my &#$&#!"

"Oh yeah, well ^&%*$&%^&^#"

"How rude!" Oberon finished.

"Oh, please, Oberon, are you gonna let a WENCH talk to you that way?" I coaxed slyly.

"NO WAY!" the proud king sputtered drunkenly, "You should learn your place, you worthless haughty bitch!"

"Titania, you're the QUEEN of the faeries, do you DESERVE that?" I sympathized for my own benefit.

"That's right!" she shouted, "I KNOW my place, in charge of things, you drunken vagrant!" 

This was better than I thought! But suddenly my magic sensed went off. Uh oh, I may have started something a bit bigger than I counted on, for my sense was telling me that Titania and Oberon were suddenly getting charged.

Takeru kind of groaned from my side, I could tell he was getting a blast of this, too. 

"Are you angry?" Duke Kamiya suddenly spoke, "If you're busy, we can come back later at a better time?" he sincerely considered returning.

If I weren't in pain, I would've hurt the idiot for speaking. (Which was the reason we were in this situation in the first place.) 

In the midst of my struggle between magic pain and the desire to wipe Taichi from the face of the earth, I picked up another pinging. This one didn't hurt, but it was also steadily getting stronger, reacting to Titania and Oberon's now full-out faerie magic WAR (with a capital W-A-R). It felt like a dull pinging in my inner ear. Like there was a small bell going off in my head, drowning out most sound around me. 

It took me a moment to figure out where it was coming from. I searched with my senses and pin pointed it to…my pocket.

My pocket? What was in my pocket that would set off my sense. It was strange. It felt different from faerie or mage magic, mage you can smell and faerie magic flows over your skin, I could hear it. What was…

The ORIHALCON! 

I maneuvered my bound, ribbon covered hands over to my pockets and retrieved the statue. 

Everything stopped. Again all eyes turned to me. 

"He-he has an Orihalcon!" a random faerfolk cried from the crowd of on lookers. 

"Careful, he might activate it!" yelled another.

I smiled slyly and held it out in front of me. 

All of the faeries around me backed away. I grinned. I could use this!

I looked at the King and Queen. 

Oberon appeared honestly frightened of the little statue. This was it! 

I had power!

I had control!

I had *no* _clue_ how to use it!

"See, what did I tell you about his spunk?!?"

I blink once and looked at the shadow towering over me. The queen of course, she didn't look at all intimidated…she was *beaming* at me!

I winced. Visibly. I pulled out my sword (Do not ask *how* I did it. I did. Accept the incredibly non-existent fact.), and sliced Takeru's bonds. I threw the sword back into the sheath. (My own wrists still tied), and shoved him in front of me (also still holding out my protective ward). 

"Ok. It was nice meeting all you, but we must *really* be going." The corner of my mouth twitched as I jabbed Takeru's ribs. "Now we're going." I barely managed to grit out. 

All this time, Kamiya was _still_ staring blankly out into space. The imbecile. But I didn't care, as Takeru and I were sprinting through the frightened mob, thankfully leaving the most of our troubles behind us. Kamiya included, of course. Takeru seemed just content to flee as well. 

But just as we left sight of them, a stray Kamiya went flying into a nearby tree. "If you're leaving, take THAT with you!!!!!!!" 

I moaned, "Aw |= |_| ( K!"


	6. 18-21 Long Winded Spells: The Chase is ...

18

Disclaimer: Not mine, no money, don't sue...

For further warnings, see part 1

Also: We do not own Grandia (though we wish we did!) I'd also like to thank Tolkien, Shakespeare and the creator of Slayers for all their help! (figuratively) We do not own Slayers, Midsummer Night's Dream, or The Hobbit. In this section, we'd like to thank Lodoss War for the stuff we stole..er..took by force...um...borrowed. Hehe..::sweatdrop::

18. ^_~ KOUSHIROU

"WHAT'S GOING ON IN HERE?!"

My musings about the girl and here mysterious pet were interrupted by the thundering inferno that appeared at the door.

Mimi stood up suddenly, eyes wide with apprehension. "It was an accident, the vase fell and…"

Myotis cut her off, "Do have any idea how much that cost!?"

"Yes, I'm the one you sent to buy it…", she replied calmly.

"That's NOT the POINT!"

"It's not?"

The blonde man grabbed her arm and slapped her with a resounding 'crack'. Her head whipped back and for a moment I was afraid he'd broken her neck. 

From my side Pata gave an incoherent shriek and flew to Mimi's defense. "Stop it! It wasn't her fault!" he cried, attempting to get between the enraged man and his friend. 

Myotis wasn't going to have it. He batted the creature aside and the poor thing crashed into a mirror on the far wall near the shattered vase. Bits of reflective glass glittered as they sprayed across the room and on to the floor. Pata hit the ground like a heavy sack, unmoving.

"Now look what you made me do!" the slave owner growled, throwing the girl to the glass-covered floor in disgust. Only when a particularly large shard jabbed though her sleeve, into her shoulder, did she cry out. 

Myotis sneered.

I acted.

I don't think he ever saw that fireball coming. The spear of flame connected with his side and the force of it sent him off his feet, unconscious. I dashed to Mimi's side and helped her up.

"Are you okay, Mimi-chan?" I asked, concerned.

She gripped her shoulder in pain and half-smiled at me, another bruise forming along her cheekbone. She was tough…"-chan not -san? Presumptuous, aren't we? I don't even recall giving you my name." 

I realized my mistake and, blushing, attempted to sputter an apology, but she stopped me, "Hush…It's okay. I like it really. You can call me that if you want to."

I smiled, relieved. Then blanched when I noticed the amount of blood running down her side. "Come here," I said, I laid her out across the floor and muttered a few words and the wound glimmered a soft blue glow before seemingly stitching itself up and vanishing. I began pulling her off the floor and towards the exit, "Lets get out of here."

"But Pata…"

"You plan on going somewhere, little girl?" I turned to see Devi, towering in the doorway. I'd forgotten about him…Really smooth, Izumi. 

The dark man glanced at me as if noticing my presence for the first time, "What are you…"

He didn't finish, I had quickly spat out 'FireBall' and threw a large hand full of flame at him. To my surprise it bounced harmlessly off him and fizzled out of existence. "Wha?!"

Devi laughed mockingly, "So the kid's a wizard. That was weak little boy," He grinned, showing a set of sharp canines.

I gulped. What was he talking about? With a few well-placed words I could reduce this entire establishment to cinders. I was Queen's best. Who was he to call *me* weak?

I glared daggers at him, and stepped in front of Mimi, shielding her from anything he might try. I think I know, sort of, how Yamato feels when his younger sibling is threatened. For some reason, I felt that I had to defend this girl, even though I had just met her. 

With this weird mix of hurt pride and protectiveness, I began a different spell. 

"Assassin of the heavens who brings light…"

"Um, Kou-kun?" Mimi said from behind me, "What are you doing?"

I ignored her, "…From dark recesses of nightmarish power."

"Riiiiiiiiight…" Devi looked at me like I was stupid, "You kidding ain't ya?" 

I growled out the last line, "White-hot knives who strike down my enemies" White light began to gather in my hands.

Mimi gasped, realizing exactly what I was about to execute, grabbed my shoulder, "Kou-kun, Stop! It's not…"

"Heaven's CHARGE!!" I lifted the ball above my head, streaks of lightning arched across my body, and with blinding swiftness and accuracy it struck all standing in the room (except Mimi and I of course). 

The light dimmed and I regained my sight only to see Devi grinning menacingly in the charred doorframe, completely untouched. "It-it…didn't work…" I stammered, "That was…the strongest lightning spell on this half of the planet…" 

I felt a sharp pain as something connected with the back of my head. The world tilted and in the distance I heard someone laugh and a woman's scream. I had enough motor control to turn my head in the direction Myotis had fallen. The spot on the wall was empty. 

I had enough time to think, "Shit", before losing consciousness. 

19. ^_~ KOUSHIROU

"Kou-san!"

Wha? Someone's calling me? Man, my head's pounding…

"Kou-san, please wake up! Mimi's in trouble!" a high-pitched voice said

Mimi? The slave girl? Mimi, where's Mimi? I need to find her…But I hurt…

"KOU-SAN!!!" 

I opened my eyes slowly. It was dark. I sluggishly recalled that it was a little after midday when I was hit. I rolled my pounding head to the side to see what was screaming in my ear. Big mistake. The world went 'wheeeee!!'. I had to resist the urge to 'blow my guts' (as the captain so elegantly phrases it) and even if I did I didn't believe I had the strength to prevent my self from choking. 

I squeezed my eyes shut till the floor righted it's self. I concluded that I undoubtedly had received a concussion. This would make things a little more complicated. I conceded that the best course of action would be a healing spell. I focused on the incantation for I was too tired to depend on my own power without the words' aide. 

"Alhealer," I murmured, hoping the spell would succeed. If I could see, I would have observed a soft blue glow enveloping my body. But I couldn't (see, that is) so I didn't. 

"Wha? What's he doing?" squeaked a voice in my ear. That did nothing for my head but the spell quickly did its work. It cleared my mind of all the confusing cobwebs, and healed all the painful aches that plagued me. When it finished I felt rejuvenated and refreshed. 

I sat up, opening my eyes, and took a deep breath. The room smelled of charred wood, dried blood and scorched ego. I never realized how badly ego reeked… 

The inn room was completely and utterly blackened with force from 'Heaven's Charge'. I expected as much. The floor was still covered with glass and pottery shards. Several of them were covered with my blood. I could tell. I had been laying on them. 'Alhealer' had pushed them from my back and closed the lacerations. I was thankful. I could be in a lot of pain. 

"Kou-san! You're awake!"

I looked to my right to find the small pig-like creature, called Pata. He must have been hit with the spell as I cast it. I recalled him being badly injured when I passed out. 

"MIMI'S GONE!!!!!!!!!!!!" the little pig screeched.

"Mimi?" I said, dazed, "Mimi!" I leapt to my feet, battle ready. "Where is she?!" I asked hurriedly.

Pata suddenly burst out in tears, "I don't KNOW!" The winged pig flew up to rest on my shoulder, sobbing hysterically. 

I patted Pata in the head, hoping that he would calm down, but as he cried the shards on the floor began to shift…and then spring to life. The newly animated inanimate objects floated across the room to where the vase and mirror sat and proceeded to set themselves back together like a jigsaw puzzle. 

I stared, jaw hanging on my chest in a dumb fashion. I looked from the fixed furniture to the pig in my arms and back. The flying pig. The flying pig with magic powers who was crying in my arms. 

The creature I had been looking for!

Now any sane wizard would take the pig and run. But is that right? I mean, yeah, it's for the greater good and all but it doesn't belong to me. He belongs to that slave girl. That beautiful slave girl. And I know she's in trouble. I can't just LEAVE her! 

But I have to save the kingdom. The Queen needs me!

But this girl needs your help NOW!

She may already be dead.

You won't know until you find her. 

And what if she is?

A risk you'll have to take.

You sure we can't just take the pig and leave?

Why am I talking to myself?

What's worse, why am I answering?

After much debate, I decided I would save Mimi. 

20. ^..^ QUEEN KARI

"Thaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaat JERK!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!~!" I yelled.

"Please don't kill me," the pageboy pleaded who brought me news of that stupid Joe's army advancement.

I quickly regained my composure, realizing I had scared the poor boy, "I'm sorry, quickly, send word to Captain Yamato about this!" I stopped myself, realizing Yamato had accompanied my brother to attack the Duchy, "Nevermind that last statement, young page, inform Wizard-in-training Cody to report here immediately if not sooner!"

"Yes, your majesty!" he scuttled off to find the young wizard.

I sighed, "What am I gonna do about this? Taichi's army isn't anything to scoff at, I just hope they won't actually attack us. Joe shouldn't be able to control the army… I mean, why would they listen to him?"

~In the duchy of Takenouchi, an evil alchemist hands out American dollars to Taichi's troops.~

"This just won't do, I'll have to mobilize the capital's troops to stop him. As it is, the only way I can think of to regain control of that annoying duchy is to put Sora in charge again. Which means…" my out-loud pondering was interrupted by a sloppy teleportation spell.

The wizard-in-training Cody appeared in a mess of lights and flashes, but one piece, and managed to stand up, "Hai, your highness!" 

"Oh, get up, I need you to come up with a good strategy to box in Taichi's troops until Captain Yamato and Wizard Izumi return," I stated to him matter-of-factly. 

"Do you really think I'm up to it?" Cody choked out.

I nodded, "It would be better if you had finished your training first, but I suppose you'll do."

The black-haired boy beamed, his blue-black eyes wide with thanks, "Alright, I'll get right on it!"

Okay, so now we'll have a plan, next we needs to gather up the troops, I strode down from the dais my throne rested upon and headed to the barracks where the soldiers were. The long hallways of the castle were very extravagant, but I had no time to admire them now. Turning a few corners and pacing down a couple hallways, I arrived at the barracks doors. Without knocking, I pushed open the doors.

I heard a few gasps, "The queen!" and the soldiers hastened to bow.

"No, it's okay, no time for that now, Joe has taken over Duke Kamiya's duchy," I told them.

A couple snickers, several moans, and one gasp of surprise. (He must be a new recruit.)

I continued, "Well, this one has managed to take control of his army and has mobilized them against the capital. So, I'm going to need to speak to a Corporal or someone who'll be leading the defense against them."

An overly cheerful, dark-haired woman with a white soldier's uniform on came bounding up to me. I think I remembered her, she stood out as a 'justice freak'… I recall why I hired her.

"OHAYO!!! Corporal Amelia Wil Tesla Sailune reporting for DUTY! In the name the Kingdom of Server, I shall punish evil-doers!" the girl shouted, striking dramatic poses. See why I can't remember why I hired her?

I sighed, "That's nice, dear, I guess it's good that you can keep the soldiers' spirits up…" I searched for a compliment. "Mobilize the troops immediately, the enemy solders are on the move."

"YES MA'AM!"

I blinked and she seemed to have disappeared. Then I heard her voice from above. I looked up and saw her standing on top of a poll, her cape flapping in the wind and striking a 'gallant' pose.

"Onward troops! Tonight we battle for Truth and JUSTICE! If we fight with justice in our hearts, justice will always prevail!" 

I sweatdropped. My kingdom was doomed…

21. / ^_^ \ PATA

Oh, this was horrible… terrible… scary even! Big Kou-san was all out cold… And I was hungry! Oh, and Mimi-chan was taken prisoner!

That mean old Devi had distwacted Kou-san while scary old Myotis beat him down with a chair! Oh, how horrible! (And scary too!) Once they left, I got up and tried to wake up big Kou-san for a really long time before he finally woke up!

"Kou-san!" I called.

He kinda moved a little! YAY!

"Kou-san, please wake up! Mimi's in trouble!" I called, louder this time. 

He moved a little more!!!

"KOU-SAN!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!" I yelled.

This time, his eyes opened. He mumbled something, "Alhealer," and suddenly he looked better. 

"Wha? What's he doing?" I squeaked and then all my boo-boos went away, too!

Kou-san sat up and looked around. I noticed he wasn't hurt anymore, "Kou-san! You're awake!"

The nice wizard looked at me, "MIMI'S GONE!!!!!!!!!!!!!" I cried, now that he was list'nin' to me!

"Mimi?" he asked "Mimi!" he jumped up. "Where is she?!" he asked me, kinda serious.

I thought for a minute, and I didn't know! "I don't KNOW!!!" I cried, wailing because I didn't know where poor Mimi-chan had gone! Mimi-chan!!!! Mimi-chan!!!! Where was she!?

I flitted up to Kou-san's shoulder to make me feel better, and he patted me, but… I had forgot that I was over the broken vase when my tears suddenly hit the pieces of it. They sprang up and put themselves back together as the vase I had broken, so did the mirror. *I guess now Mimi-chan won't have to… have to… pay for it…* I thought, still sobbing, even in my head…

But Kou-san seemed to get really shocked about the vase and mirror. He kinda stood there all blank for a while. His jaw was hanging down all slack and stuff. Wanting to be helpful, I reached over and pushed his jaw back up, I didn't want him to catch anything like flies or something.

He finally looked at me again. Then he looked at the vase. Then me. Then he looked at the mirror. Then he looked at me. Then the vase again. Finally, he spoke, "Mythic flying creature?"

I looked up at him, he had a funny look on his face, "Yeah, I'm a Mythic Pata, but Mimi-chan just calls me 'Pata'. Aren't we gonna go look for Mimi-chan, now?" I asked, my voice shook a little, I noticed.

Old Kou-san's eyes looked at me nice and he sighed, "Yes, Pata, we'll go save Mimi…"

YAY! I asked him, "But where do we look?"

Kou-san thought a moment and the next thing I knew, we were running around downstairs. Kou-san asked a couple people (I don't know why he was holding a fireball, but he was) where the slaves were normally sold. 

"Auction…" one nice man finally gasped and pointed towards CPU Square.

Without waiting for me to say 'thank-you', Kou-san went running off to the Auction, which was currently selling an old necklace with pretty stones on it. Kou-san grabbed a ticket-tag with the number 8 on it. To my surprise, he sat down in one of the seats and waited patiently, eyeing Myotis who was standing on the raised stage way up high.

I guess he was going to BUY Mimi-chan…


	7. 22-24 Ticket Tags Flare: Voices in the ...

22

Disclaimer: Not mine, no money, don't sue...

For further warnings, see part 1

Also: We do not own Grandia (though we wish we did!) I'd also like to thank Tolkien, Shakespeare and the creator of Slayers for all their help! (figuratively) We do not own Slayers, Midsummer Night's Dream, or The Hobbit. And have no fear, Fushigi Yugi makers, we will return your pawns to you unscathed. 

22. $_$ MIMI

Bastard. Mother I= I_I ( K-ing Bastard. 

Not you, this annoying $ |-| ! + head here!

I was being dragged roughly down an alleyway to the CPU square the slave auction was taking place. Myotis and Devi had grabbed me after Blondie bashed Kou-chan over the head with a chair. 

Of course I didn't go without a fight. Myotis was a little banged up and Devi DEFENTLY didn't get away unscathed! He was lucky he ducked or he would have been eating through a straw for a month. 

But they're bigger then me so I didn't get much of anywhere… 

I hope Kou-chan's all right. 

"Bitch," Myotis muttered, annoyed. He dabbed at some blood flowing from his upper lip(serves him right) ,"She has waaa~y to much of that spirit you were talking about, Devi…"

Devi grinned, "That's what I admire in her."

"Well other people admire that, too. You won't be the only one betting, remember?"

Devi radiated smugness, " Don't worry about that. I've got more money than this town has put together. I'll just keep betting till the competition is scared off. If any idiot tries me…" He let that trail off. We all had a pretty good idea what he was going to do. 

And I wanted nothing to do with it. I twisted in Myotis's grip, taking him by surprise, and bit his arm till he bled. 

"YAAA!" He let go of me and I made a mad dash for the nearest exit out of that ally. Those morons didn't start after me for a good 20 seconds( too busy yelling at each other, I guess.) Good thing for me!

I sprinted (as well as any girl could in that dress…Sheesh!) on to the main street of town occasionally ducking into shadows and such. It was getting dark so that made it a bit easier. 

I pushed past a merchant and some servants on my "stroll' through town. I apologized quickly as the man crashed to the ground in a vegetable covered heap. He yelled some words I was perfectly familiar with and I (of course) ignored him. I needed to get some where safe!

I looked back over my shoulder when I stopped at a corner to catch my breath. Myotis was asking a random pedestrian some thing (probably my whereabouts) and scanning the crowds for me.

Well he wasn't going to find me. I ducked into the first building I came to. 

It turned out to be another tavern…sigh I'm getting sick of these places…I didn't want to draw attention to myself so I played it cool, dusted off my green skirts and patted inside. It was a very nice place. Not seedy and smoky like the joint I had to stay in. Decent-looking people sat at the clean tables instead of drug dealers and pimps at rickety ones. 

A young lady with long brown hair walked up to me, smiling sweetly and carrying a tray. "Hi, Sugar. May I help you?"

I smiled sweetly at her, "Yes. In fact you can. I'm in deep shit and I need out of it. There are these guys on my tail and…"

She stopped me right there. "Now listen here, Sugar…" She stated firmly. I had a sinking feeling that I wasn't going to get help here…

"You shouldn't be rambling off you problem, like that in front of customers." She reached down and grabbed my hand, "Now come on. Lets get you to one of the back rooms." She turned and led me through the tavern, around tables and such to a door next to the kitchen. She opened it. I peered inside. It was a small office. She probable did paper work here. 

I looked back at her as she started talking again. "Now, Sugar, just stay in here and I'll shoo away anyone who comes lookin' for ya. Okay? If you need anything just ask Ucchan." She finished gesturing to herself. Ucchan then pushed me into the room and shut the door behind me. 

I sighed in relief and leaned against the wall heavily. Careful, Mimi. Don't drop you guard because of a Good Samaritan. Those bastards could be anywhere. 

My thoughts began to drift to…Kou-chan…I hope he was a right…I found myself looking forward to the next moment I saw him. He had this presence…

I was interrupted by a loud CRASH!!

Ten minutes later I found myself standing on the auction block in the middle of the square with an annoying man yelling a mile a minute. Well God Damn….

Myotis had managed to find me, stupid HAMM radio CIA-upgrades remote handheld state-of-the-art homing tracing systems operation! Gets me every time. 

But that's another story. Right now, I was being bet upon. Guys are pigs.

"Two hundred American dollars!" One sleazy-looking bastard held up his white ticket-tag showing his bet.

The auctioneer, Veggie, spoke up, "I've got 200, do I hear 230?"

An auburn-haired bastard in back held up his ticket-tag, "300!" Huh? I recognized that voice! That auburn-haired bastard was Kou-chan!

"What are you doing!?" I called at him.

Veggie wrapped a hand around my mouth, "Quiet, we don't want them to know about that spunk problem of yours."

"Saving you, of course," Kou-chan replied.

I bit Veggie's hand, "Like THIS?"

"$400!" someone suddenly called out, it was Devi, that bastard, that sexist hog-like alcoholic dick-less pedophile BASTARD!

Kou-chan scowled, "Hey!" he lifted his ticket-tag, "450!"

At this point, the other audience members seemed a bit left out and started betting as well. Those bastards!

"500!" one said.

"550!" Kou-chan shouted back.

"551!" another bastard held up his ticket-tag.

"552!" Kou-chan hissed.

"Is that all?" I asked.

"I'm doing the best I can!" he protested, "I'm using the Queen's money!"

"675!" one of the richer bastards yelled.

Kou-chan sighed, "800!"

I cheered, "That's better!"

Kou-chan blushed and flustered, "You're embarrassing me!"

I winked.

"850!" a short bastard called.

"1000!" another bastard yelled.

"1001!" the idiotic bastard held up his ticket-tag.

"1100!" Kou-chan forced up his ticket-tag, "this is a painful amount of money."

"10,000!" that sexist hog-like alcoholic dick-less pedophile bastard, Devi suddenly yelled.

My jaw dropped. That was it!

The crowd of bastards and Kou-chan hushed. Veggie spoke up, "Whoa! $10,000! Hey, do I hear anymore? Going once, twice, so--*"

"20,000!" Kou-chan suddenly stood up, brandishing his ticket-tag.

"What?" Devi exclaimed, "Why you little…" he let it hang, then sneered, "FIREBOLT!"

A shock a flame ripped from the bastard's open palm and crashed at my savior, er… my Kou-chan!

"HEY!" Koushirou protested, "FLARE WALL!" a fiery barrier erected itself about the auburn-haired wizard, "That's playing dirty!"

"30,000!" Devi held up his ticket-tag, then in the same breath, "VOLT ARIA!" a hail of electricity filled the crowd.

And the crowd panicked.

"HEY, YOU NUT!" 

"YOU JERK-OFF!" 

"MOTHER F*CKER!"

"AW SHIT! THAT HURTS!"

"SOMEONE CALL A DOCTOR!"

"HE'S A WIZARD!"

"REALLY?"

"**GASP!!!**" 

"THIS SUCKS! OW!"

"OH MIAKA!"

"TAMAHOME! NOT NOW!"

"LOOK OUT, THE OTHER ONE'S GETTING READY!"

"IT'S THE FRIGGIN' END OF THE WORLD!!!!"

"CAN'T GO TO A SIMPLE AUCTION!"

"I'M NOT BETTING AGAINST HIM!"

That said, the crowd was pretty sparse now.

"50,000!" Kou-chan yelled, "and two can play that game! Earth, submit to my will, Terra FORCE!"

A stream of erupting earth pummeled at Devi. He responded by holding up his ticket-tag, "100,000!"

Kou-chan gasped like he'd been stabbed with a knife, his earth spell suddenly ceased, "Ouch!" the young wizard spat, "too much… too much…" the handsome… er… nice… I mean…(Aww…forget it) cute boy flashed his ticket-tag, "120,000!"

"Still stubborn?" Devi asked, "Flash ARROW!" a red beam of light shot through Kou-chan's barrier of fire and struck him in the shoulder.

"AAAAAAA!" Kou-chan yelled, clutching his injury.

"150,000!" Devi called.

"Why you!" my wizard held up his ticket tag, "PINK TICKET TAG FLASH!" a burst of piercing pink light filled the friggin' town and just near blinded everyone. Ow… too bright.

I could barely make out Devi and the rest of the crowd rubbing their eyes. If it hadn't been that Veggie was standing in front of me at the time…

"500,000!" Kou-chan called.

I think I was blushing, of course that could be the remnants of the pink spell.

"That was low!" Devi coughed.

I rolled my eyes, "You're not one to talk!"

"Shut up, wench, I'll get you and break you like a worthless twig just for the fun of it!" the bastard yelled at me like I was some piece of meat. "SERPENT BITE!" a twin beam of black energy sizzled at Kou-chan.

Kou-chan's eyes widened when he recognized the poison spell, "1,000,000, and ANTIDOTE!" he cast the reverse spell, using the ticket-tag as the focus.

"10,000,000!" Devi yelled, sparks flying.

"WOULD YOU CUT IT OUT!?!?" I screamed, "GIVE IT UP ALREADY!"

Kou-chan winked suddenly, "20,000,000!" then turned to Devi, and raised two fingers and, "SILENCE WAVE" a field of gray energy suddenly swept over Devi.

"…" Devi opened his mouth and yet said nothing…

Kou-chan beamed at me, "Gotta love those Silence spells."

Devi held a gloved hand to his throat and a sparkling white hue glowed from it, "I hate you."

Kou-chan glared at him, waved his ticket-tag and slowly stated, "30,000,000…"

"THAT'S IT! I'm sick of playing around with a little wizard like you! 50,000,000!" Devi stuck the ticket-tag used for betting out in front of him and began to chant, "Power from beyond the grave, sickle of life whose slice will end…"

"What?" I started, not recognizing the spell.

"Bring your unholy energies here! Golden thread cut short by divine revolution! DEATH RIBBON!" Devi shouted, the ticket-tag glowing black with magic, the power shot out in tendril-like ribbons that arched directly toward Kou-chan.

Kou-chan gasped, "Mirror of future hopes whose life force each and every holds, protect my family, protect my friends, and reverse the power I face now! MIRROR OF DREAMS!" he spouted in one hurried, panicked breath

Definitely a protection spell, a golden aura shimmered into existance just in front of Kou-chan and reflected the black ribbons lacing back to Devi.

"100,000,000!" the dark man shrieked before falling victim to his own spell.

Veggie watched as Devi's lifeless form fell to the ground, "100,000,000! Do I hear 100,000,001?"

I sweatdropped.

"No?" the auctioneer squeaked, shocked by the recent events, "Going once… twice… aw hell, she's yours… To the only man left standing, SOLD! For 100 Million!"

I rushed over to Kou-chan, finally free, I hugged his midsection, "Oh, thank you so much, I never thought you'd pay 100 Million for me!"

Kou-chan fainted, "The Queen's gonna kill me." 

23. -_-* TAICHI

I sighed, however WAS I going to get this tacky blue ribbon out of my hair? But, then again, maybe it'll look good there. When I asked young Takeru his opinion he seemed so thrilled with the idea that he threw up his hands in praise and rolled his eyes upwards at the sky in blessing.

Captain Yamato forged us onward for about an hour after our cheery visit with the faeries. We had managed to lose our steeds and Sir Yamato seemed distraught at the loss of his strangely lupine horse, Garuru. 

It was then my stomach made a large, unusual rumbling sound. The rumble appeared to be centered at my midsection and churn in my stomach. This was an unpleasant sensation that I was unfamiliar with, it also seemed loud enough to disturb Takeru and Sir Yamato.

"He's hungry…" I heard Takeru say.

"Hungry? What exactly is a hungry?" I asked, wanting to be an informed person.

Yamato suddenly tripped and Takeru hung his head at an odd angle, "He doesn't know what hungry means…"

"You tell him!" Takeru insisted at his elder.

"No, I'll kill him first, you tell him!" Yamato argued.

"Well, I know, I'll tell him!" I offered, trying to be helpful.

Takeru sighed for some odd reason, what a strange child, he's always sighing, maybe he's depressed about something. I think I'll make a note to chat with him about it later so he can open up to me and feel better about himself. I'm positive my guidance will make him feel better. Besides, I think he enjoys spending time with me. 

The young page explained, "It means we need to go hunting, your grace."

"Hunting? Isn't that where ghosts stay and spook people?" I asked.

"That's HAUNTING!" Takeru calmly explained with a rather loud voice, "Hunting is where we shoot stupid animals for food," he pulled out his bow and arrow and demonstrated by aiming carefully at something just behind my eyes.

"TAKERU! NO!" Sir Yamato called.

Takeru blinked, "No? No what? I thought YOU wanted him dead?"

Yamato cleared his throat, "No, I wanted to kill him MYSELF…."

The page-boy sighed. There he goes with that sighing problem again.

"We need to pitch camp soon," Yamato said.

"Yes," I explained, "I'm certain that my idea of camping soon will lead to a better rest for tomorrow's quest of finding the magic tree to save SORA-CHAN!"

The two brothers spoke in unison, "Yes, your grace…" they didn't sound very enthusiastic, so I decided to give both of them some of my inspiring moral support chats later.

When I told them this, that alone seemed enough to get them very excited and screaming with joy.

I searched for a reasonable amount of time to find the absolutely most perfect spot ever to pitch camp. I figured right next to the fertile swamp ground would be perfect for the always present danger that butterflies may attack. The two brothers grunted with my favorite choice after 12 hours of searching. I made sure to perfectly oversee the construction of the entire camp.

I continued leaning in the lawn chair I had brought to supervise the set up of the camp and sipped a pink lemonade. Yamato and Takeru happily dragged themselves towards me with their building tools after finishing their chores. "Ah, good work, my friends, can you get me another pink lemonade, supervising is such hard work."

The two men twitched and dropped their tools opting to reach out to hug me in such delight.

I yawned, "No time to hug right now, my friends. We're going to need lots of sleep, so let's hit the hay!" I stated chipperly to raise their spirits.

Takeru laughed, "Yes… yes, sleep, lots of sleep… permanently, sir! I mean, right away sir!"

Sir Yamato nodded fervently, "Hai, let's get LOTS of sleep."

I smiled at their eagerness and proceeded first into the tent for some rest. I'm so glad that my friends are around to keep me safe from the butterflies just in case.

24. ~_~ YAMATO

It was my watch. I was the first of the night. Takeru and I decided that we would take turns instead of breaking the night into 3rds. We most certainly didn't trust the Duke with the camp, let alone our lives.

So I sat in front of the blazing fire and quietly contemplated the flames, poking at it every now and then to keep it burning. The moron and my brother/page had gone to bed a while ago and it was almost time for me to wake Takeru for his watch. 

I sighed…maybe I should let him sleep. We've had a big day with the party and all…and putting up the Duke…Gods, we should get medals for not killing him. 

How long had it been…six years? Seven? I think Father would be proud of Takeru, not only for his self-control, but he strength, bravery and the person he has become. Despite what I tell myself, the kid can really hold his own. He's growing up so fast…its beginning to scare me. He's starting to treat me more and more like his superior and best friend than his older brother and protector… I'm probably just not ready for the fact that soon he'll become a man and Knight himself… 

Yes, I do believe, that, if they were still here to see it, Father and Mother would be proud of him. Just like I am… 

I sighed. I'll get over it sooner or later. Enough brooding for right now. I need to…hmmm?

My head snapped up. 

What was that?

Standing up, I pricked my ears and strained to hear. It was coming from the swamp. What could it be? 

Drawing my sword, I carefully crept towards the line of tall black twisted trees that made up the woods in this area. (The Duke picked such a …wonderful…spot.) I left the circle of light and darkness enveloped me. The only thing illuminating my path was the moonlight filtering through the gnarled limbs above me. 

I heard the sound again. A little to my right. Getting louder. 

I creeped up behind some bushes, avoiding the water's edge, and peered into a clearing. Moonlight lit a small area of ground completely untouched by the swamp and underbrush. Sitting in the center was a large lush tree (completely different from the bare twisted ones around me) roots and limbs jutted up from the ground and trunk in dazzling patterns but what drew my attention was the source of the noise that attracted me here.

A little girl sat crying underneath the expansive tree. 

I felt my heart soften. A little girl… what was she doing out here? She seemed to remind me of Takeru when he was little… 

Before I could think twice about it, I stepped into the clearing, sheathed my blade and approached the sobbing child. 

"Hi," I said softly, kneeling in front of her, getting down to her level. "Are you okay? What's wrong?"

She didn't answer for a while. I reached out and stroked her short green hair gently, "Shhhh…It's okay. I'm not going to hurt you." I cooed, trying to comport her the way I used to do for my brother. " Just tell me what's wrong, maybe I can help…" There was a sudden chilling sensation rippling across my skin. I blamed it on the wind.

She slowly stopped her frantic sobs and muttered in a watery voice, "I'm hungry…"

The poor girl. I felt a pang of sympathy. I slipped back into my 'talking-to-little-kids' voice, "I have some food back at camp a short walk from here, I could take you there and give you some food and place to stay for the night if you wish…" she shook her head vehemently. She hadn't looked up at me once, always keeping her face buried in her arms resting on her knees. 

I though for a moment, "Well…if you don't wanna leave I'll go and fetch…" I began starting to get up, she reached out and grabbed my arm in a shockingly strong grip.

"No!" She shrieked in fright, pulling me back ,"Don't go! I'm hungry! Please stay!"

I fell to my knees in front of her again, her small hands still clutched around my forearm. "Okay! I'll stay…but…I don't…" I trailed off as the chilling, prickling sensation shot up my spin and washed over my skin…Magic? But what…?

The girls head snapped back reviling her face… her eyes where completely blank. No pupil, no iris, nothing…

Oh…Shit…

The girl muttered something quietly and disappeared. "Huh?" Roots erupted from the ground around me.

"What the!" I drew my sword but it was useless. I only managed to swing once(not even connecting with my target) before one of the offending appendages snapped at my wrist, wrapping around it tightly and holding it immobile. "Let go!" I growled, and struggled furiously as more roots shot from the ground and coiled up my legs. With my free hand I snatched up a hunting knife I kept on my hip, and jammed it in to the root restraining sword arm. 

It recoiled and let me go. Go me.

SNAP!

Something whipped across the side of my face, I was knocked off balance, and stunned but for only a moment. 

That was all it took. They were all over me and held fast. 

Shit. I was going to die. There was a sickening 'thud' as something sharp jabbed through my armor and into my back. It was followed by several others. 

I wasn't just going to die. There probably won't even be a body. This tree, this Siren, I realized, was going to absorb me! 

So I did the only thing I could do…

I screamed. 


	8. 25-27 Battle for Life: Um...the Tree Sp...

Ethan Frome

Disclaimer: Not mine, no money, don't sue...

For further warnings, see part 1

Also: We do not own Grandia (though we wish we did!) I'd also like to thank Tolkien, Shakespeare and the creator of Slayers for all their help! (figuratively) We do not own Slayers, Midsummer Night's Dream, or The Hobbit. And have no fear, Fushigi Yugi makers, we will return your pawns to you unscathed. 

25. ^_^!! TAKERU

A blood-curdling scream jolted me from my sleep. Wha? Who? I sat up, hurriedly and lifted the tent flap to look outside. 

Yamato was gone. 

I paled, the screams continued from beyond the circle of fire light.. YAMATO! My brother was in trouble! I grabbed my bow and laced my quiver of arrows over my shoulder. Before I left the tent I threw a glance at the Duke. (Believe it or not but the Duke actually looks like an innocent and likeable person when asleep. Too bad it doesn't carry over to the day time…) Should I take him along? There might be more action than I could handle…I mean, my master/brother is screaming in pain…And he's a Knight…

I decided to leave him there. The Duke's more trouble then he's worth…

That aside, I leapt from the canvas tent and tore through the underbrush in the direction of my brother's voice. Twisted branches and vines whipped at my face, tripped me up, and grabbed at my clothes. I ignored them, and instead pressed on.

Closer… Louder…

Closer… Louder

Closer…

Silence. He stopped…Oh, Man. That can't be good.

I burst into a clearing and gasped at what I saw.

A tree. A sprawling tree loomed in the middle of the clearing. It's branches weaving an intricate pattern in the starlit sky.

But that was not what I was gaping at.

My brother…Yamato was hanging limp in the confining arms of this tree. His head dropped so that his chin was on his chest, gold locks dipping in front of his eyes, which were drawn tightly in pain, even in his obviously unconscious state. I stared in horror for a moment but then I saw a trickling of something falling to ground behind him. 

In morbid curiosity, I circled the clearing to get a look at his back.

Three limbs where impaled in his back, straight through his armor. Dark blood dripped down his legs and saturated his clothes. 

"Oh…my gods…" I paled and resisted the urge to retch. My master was going to DIE if I didn't do something NOW! 

Without thinking, I ran over to him and tried pulling on the roots in vain, they, of course, didn't budge. I panicked. I nearly began to cry as my fingers slipped again on the blood slick limbs. No no no… Don't panic…I took a deep breath. Stay calm. Nii-san always said to keep a clear head in tight situations. A life could depend upon it. And boy did it!

I took another deep breath and felt a lot of hysteria flow out with it. Okay…okay. What would Yama do? Well he wouldn't go at it with his bare hands, that's for sure. I need something… 

I looked around franticly for something to use and spotted Yamato's sword on the ground some 10 feet way. 

Good! That'll be a great improvement! 

And so, I rushed/crawled/skittered/hopped/ran madly and panickedly over to my soon-to-be-dead brother's sword. Not having much time before the tree finished the knight off, I quickly hefted the large sword into a reasonably good handling stance. Not waiting to think, I lumberjacked the tree's trunk with a loud 'THOK' in an attempt to get its attention and quite possibly free my brother.

At first, this seemed unsuccessful, that is until in front of me appeared a cute little girl, with green hair and wearing a dark brown ragged dress, and blatantly shouted in my face, "What are you doing!?"

I stopped in mid-swing. "Wha!' 

"How would you like it if I chopped your arm off?" The short girl sneered.

I was a bit confused, who was she, I asked her.

"Who am I? Who I am isn't important but what is important is what happens next." She answered cryptically.

Whoa...that did NOT sound passive." So what does happen next?" I asked suspiciously. 

The green-haired girl scowled, "You leave." She stated dangerously.

I didn't have the chance to blink before the word escaped my lips, "What?"

She decked me. Clobbered, walloped, slaughtered, pulverized, laid low by one blow are very good ways to determine the kind of punch she landed in my stomach just below my breastplate. 

I fell to my knees, the little girl seemed taller now. She'd gotten me off guard, I hated myself for it, Yamato would've NEVER made such dumb mistake. I wouldn't make another. I shifted and pushed myself hard from the ground to spring backwards towards the clearing's edge to give myself room to attack. 

The malevolent girl frowned, "You're no use to me right now, I'll let you live if you go now," she glared at me with her piercing eyes for the first time. 

She was deadly, I could see that, I flickered my eyes towards my elder brother. In that glance, I saw a scene that nearly froze my blood. My brother's near-lifeless body hung limply in the stabbing roots covered in a crimson river of dripping blood. His hair had turned white, and his pain-sealed eyes and blood-coughing lips were the only signs of movement the knight displayed. Horrified, I shunted the image away and gazed blankly at the girl.

Without realizing it, I knocked an arrow, aimed and released directly at the girl's piercing glare.

The arrow never hit its target.

My arrow flew right where it should have hit the arrogant young girl square in the middle of her eyes. Surprised, I had found that the girl had vanished without a show of magic. Apparently, this girl was either a very powerful sorcerer or a mystic being of some kind.

I looked around confusedly, trying to avoid the sight of my brother's dire condition. Trying to escape the reality of his whitened hair. The blood that each breath poured. The straining cough as he struggled lifelessly, the sickening crunch as his broken limbs twisted against the tree's own gnarled ones. I knocked another arrow and shot the root holding my brother's broken sword arm. The hint of bone glinted through the bloodied skin in his arm.

The root snapped, allowing the sickening limb to wave freely. The snapped limb gushed blood. I shot another gnarled root, this time freeing Yamato's back from the piercing spire in his chest. I shot another. And another. Each one poured the magic blood we'd been sent to retrieve, but none of that mattered right now. Yamato was all but free, but once he neared the point where I might be able to retrieve his battered body, the roots simply shot into him again, eliciting an unconscious wail from my brother's mouth.

What would Yamato do? He wouldn't just stand here, he'd come up with a plan. I thought quickly, Fire! I pulled a flint sparker from my belt and started a small blaze in the grass near my feet. Quickly, I knocked an arrow and lit it aflame. Aiming, I let loose the arrow into the tree's trunk.

The fire sparked quickly and a small flare spread about the arrow. I set another arrow ablaze and shot it at the tree. It hit its mark well for the tree suddenly recoiled and its thrashing limbs dropped my brother into a bloodied heap on the forest floor.

"I warned you to leave," the girl's voice echoed. She turned to fully face me, those strange eyes narrowing to small, infuriated slits. She rose a small hand palm outwards in my direction.

"So now...It's time for your life to end." (Gee...one track mind, ne? ) I swallowed a muffled yelp and glanced sideways to again see the horrible sight of my dying...maybe already dead...brother...

It didn't seem real...him being like that. I hadn't known him to ever loose a battle...yet...there he was...Dark crimson blood pooling beneath him. The mere sound of it tore at the substance that made up my soul. I think I'd even forgotten the evil presence that did that to him...I could only hear it. _Drip...Drip...Drip..._I clenched my jaw.

"Heh. Be gone." Said the girl as I turned to face her once again. Her palm blurred and a darkness grew within it. The darkness gathered into a sphere, which crackled with an almost evil intensity. You could almost feel the power's hunger, it's yearning to open its maw to swallow your entire being...

But I wouldn't...Couldn't let that happen. Yamato...My brother..! 

In a flash that the fastest and most keen of eyes would have missed, the sphere shot towards me, filling my vision, a trail of shadows tracing it's path. I narrowed my eyes and stepped to the side, just beginning to duck and the circle of darkness brushed past me. I nearly winced as the rancid stench of such evil almost choked me. 

As the sphere flew past, the girl's gaze turned to me, a faint hint of ironic surprise in her mirthless smile. "You dodged. Almost impressive." She stated coldly.

I suppressed a snarl and knocked an arrow to my bow, drawing it back and then releasing...Yet again, the girl vanished a mere moment before it would have struck. I grimaced then knocked another, whirling to face the tree. 

I let the arrow fly, as the girl materialized in front of the looming tree. She grinned belatedly and sidestepped it, reaching out and snatching the arrow from mid-air. 

That did it. I threw down my bow, dashed up to her, brought up my hand and slapped her across the face with a resounding crack. There was a moment of shocked, angry, and faintly hurt silence. 

A single, wilted leaf drifted slowly down to land on her shoulder. There was a crash as a branch from the tree snapped, crumbling in a downward arc to settle less than a yard from where the two of us stood, paralyzed. 

I, meanwhile, was enveloped in a wave of a strange, not quite painful sensation. It was almost as if I were standing in the middle of a downpour of rain, a fierce blast of wind slamming the droplets into me like a swarm of needles. I thought that for a moment I could almost hear the familiar drumming of the storm...But it was incredibly obvious that this feeling wasn't in any way connected with weather. 

Magic. It could only be that. The hairs at the back of my neck stood on end, and my spine turned to ice...The girl?!? She was still frozen, as I myself was, maybe in shock...maybe in pain...maybe in anger or hatred.

And it took only a moment, though it seemed an abyss if eternity, for me to notice this. 

It occurred to me that this stillness wasn't exactly needed. After all...she had been incredibly near to killing my brother. What would I do about? Obviously, one or the other of us would regain some form of thought and movement...

What would my brother do?? He would do the right thing obviously. Would he kill the girl before she did anymore harm? Or would he kill her? She is a girl after all. It isn't honorable to take the life of a child.

But she isn't a child, the rational part of my brain argued. She's a magical being under the guise of a girl-child... She's murdering your master. What's to think about? Get rid of her. 

I turned my harsh gaze to her, eyes dangerously narrowed. She returned the glare spitefully, yet her chin was lifted in what pride she had left. Suddenly, her arm whipped around to backhand me in return for the slap; I flew a good few feet backwards, too shocked to feel any pain as I landed with a sharp thud on my back. 

I winced and scrambled for the knife in my boot. I slipped my fingers inside and grasped the familiar handle of my switchblade hunting knife. I pulled it out with one thrust and directed the unopened weapon at my enemy's back. As she turned at the sudden movement, I snapped the switch to reveal a long, deadly, murderous.... Hair COMB?

(How'd that get in there?!?!?!) 

I sweatdropped and shoved it embarresedly back, and brought out the true knife, not without a bit of relief as the blade glimmered lightly in the scant light of the night.

She sneered, though the red imprint of a hand across her cheek darkened, leaving me with a faint flickering of guilt. Oh well. 

"A _knife_?" She snickered. "How pitiful." 

I sighed before giving a flick of my wrist, the blade settling comfortably into my palm. I gave a silent prayer before dashing towards her, the blade hissing as it split the rushing air. She waited a few moments before taking a quick step to the side, but I followed her movements, whirling to the side also, though I nearly stumbled. 

She grinned ruthlessly at that and brought her fist up in a sharp punch to my cheek, and I stiffened a moment before once again rushing towards her, ignoring the fleeting pain as the steel in my fist hungered for the chase. 

I slashed downwards at her feet, and she jumped over the blade, and for a moment all was suspended. Of course, I rolled past her as she landed, the second of unnatural stillness gone.

As I crouched, she whirled, thin lips curling in an inhuman snarl of fury, and the back of her hand sailed towards me, and I bowed my head, hair rustling as the blow flew past. I clutched the knife and brought it upwards, but she stepped back, the sharp blade making a long, vertical slice up her cheek. 

She hissed and swiped at me again, slamming her fist into my abdomen. I exhaled sharply and she repeated the action with her other fist. I choked and just barely avoided doubling over, and rammed the knife into her side, my knees feeling week. Her eyes widened and she uttered a strangled gasp, clutching the collar of my shirt and managing another, though weaker punch. 

I gulped and drew the knife, now covered to the hilt in a strange black substance ( I assumed it to be blood of some kind..). I huffed and she looked up to me with an expression of pure rage. I had hoped to make a fatal would with that thrust...Obviously not. Her eyes brightened and became a flaming color, illuminating the darkness, and she spat a curse, throwing a few more punches to my chest. 

I winced as I heard a snap as they connected, and my breathing was suddenly shallow. With another punch, she sent me sprawling, a cut on my lip spilling crimson, salty blood down my chin to drip over my shirt. As she advanced, huffing heavily as the dark substance from a gash in her side spilled more of the 'blood', she raised a fist for another blow.

I lowered myself and crouched, steadying myself before desperately springing towards her. The cool night was silent, the silvery moon and starlight spilling down upon the scene. The dark and forbidding forest loomed around us, the faint wind whispering a soft silken song of death. The shadows had eyes and watched mirthlessly, their crooked grins leering. 

I slammed the blade deeper into her chest. She fell to her knees with a choked sob, and looked up to me, those flaming red eyes holding a mixture of anger, disbelief...and, surprisingly...sorrow. She reached up a hand haltingly as the black substance dripped in a small stream out of the corner of her mouth. The wind tousled our hair, and her eyes closed...And then she vanished.

26. ~_~ YAMATO

Pain...No, that is the wrong word. I'd say agony but of course I'm only guessing. You see, I couldn't feel anything, except for the massive head ache I was experiencing and the fact that I was incredibly weak and exhausted. I seemed to have evolved beyond pain. Which was fine with me. It meant that I didn't have to put up with it. Then again... It could also mean that I'm going to be or already AM dead.

That was an unnerving thought. Was I dead? God, I hope not. That would put a damper on my love life... But that's not the point. Many of the ladies of the Queen's court came to mind. 

"Ya..to?"

Man it felt good to just lie there in blissful oblivion. I could just drift…

Hmn? What was that? A voice? 

"Yamato!?" the voice took on a more frantic tone, "Yamato!"

"Brother, please don't die on me…" I heard someone sob, it seemed to come from a distance. As if they were in another room… Brother? Takeru?! Where was Takeru?!

As soon as this though entered my mind, my eyes flew open. The first thing I noticed was the tear streaked face of my younger brother. A large purple bruise lined the edge of his cheek and his clothes dripped with a dark metallic smelling substance. My throbbing head was positioned in his lap, every time he shifted, even a little, pain would shoot up and through my skull. 

I opened my mouth to ask my page what happened, however, no sooner had I sucked in a breath to form the words, I began a long round of deep-chest coughs. Almost immediately a coppery taste filled my mouth and a substance I presumed was blood flowed over my lips.

I had seemed to be getting used to this taste… 

Summoning up my strength again, I spoke, "Gods…shoot me." (Although guns haven't been invented yet.)

Takeru smiled in relief, "Hush… be glad you're breathing…"

"Barely…" I coughed again, then moaned. Shit, that hurt. "Kill me…please."

**That would not be prudent at this juncture.**

What? A voice? No, more like a jumble of thoughts that spilled over from someone's mind that was not me, and certainly not my brother. Koushirou maybe?

"What WAS that?" Takeru exclaimed, rapidly looking about for the voice's source.

**'That,' as you so elegantly put it, would be me, the magic tree, the very GRATEFUL magic tree.**

I hacked a bit of surprise, "Grateful…? For what? My nutritional value? You were eating me!"

Somehow, the tree looked abashed, **I apologize, having you as part of my new diet wasn't my intent. I was possessed by a siren faerie. Such leeches are dangerous to magic trees such as myself. There are very few of us left because of them.**

I wasn't very sympathetic, I was dying regardless of whose fault it was…

Takeru sighed, "I'm sorry for you, but I need to know, can you heal my brother?"

**Heal him?** it asked.

"Yes," Takeru continued, "Just look at him, he's bleeding from every inch of his body, over half his limbs are broken, his hair's even turned white from the energy absorption!"

"WHAT!?!?!!?!?!?!??!?!" I screamed, even though it hurt like hell, "MY HAIR IS WHAT!?!?!?!?!?"

**White,** the tree stated simply, **Did you not receive your brother's words correctly?**

I cried, somehow… my hair… my years of perfect hair, just the right shade of blonde… GONE! THE AGONY! THE TORTURE!

The tree interrupted my lament, **I'm sorry, I don't have healing powers"

"What do you mean 'don't have healing powers'??? You're a damn Magic tree!! You're saying you can't fix this!?" I would have pointed an accusing finger at my lusterless locks if it wasn't for the whole dying problem. 

**You shouldn't worry too much, white is a good look for you. But if it bothers you that much you can always dye it.**

"Diet?" Takeru looked slightly confused," What good would that do him? He'd just be even skinnier." 

The 'magic' tree got a laugh out of that.

I shot my brother a withering glance, "Who's side are you on anyway?" I hacked, reminding everyone of the situation we were presently faced with. 

Takeru's face fell when reality hit him over the head with a two ton mallet, "Damnit," he muttered. 

"Watch your mouth," I whispered before spilling into another coughing fit. I was getting sick of this. 

Takeru faced the tree, still cradling my head in his lap. "Well, if you can't heal what can you do?"

**I can contact the nearest hospital.**

"Ha ha, very funny." Takeru sneered, "Look, I'm serious, here! My Master is dying, Damnit."

I didn't have the strength to correct him. My vision kept fading in and out. Hearing was doing the same. It felt like listening to someone with cotton over your ears. Even if I had the strength I still would not have said anything. Master… I hate that title. He was only supposed to address me that way in front of other officers, courtiers, and others of rank. In one on one situations such as this, 'Brother' is acceptable and how I prefer it . Too bad, I hear less and less of it now a days…

The tree's 'voice' forced me to stop stirring my juices. ** I wasn't joking.**

Takeru blinked, "You weren't?"

**No. I can contact any one you wish telepathically.** It stated simply.

There was a short moment of silence before the youth asked "Anyone?"

I noticed the glimmer of an idea in my brother's eyes. I'm not sure whether I was comforted by this or not…

**Anyone**

"Can you call for Koushirou Izumi? He's a wizard. I'm sure he'll be able to help."

Another long pause. 

**I've found him.** The tree 'said' finally, "He's not far from here. He's on his way."

Sure enough, not a moment later, Koushirou made another one of his incredibly under dramatized appearances. Simply materializing from no where. At least he didn't leave behind trails of glitter. However, he wasn't alone this time. He was accompanied by a striking young woman and a flying bat-pig. 

The girl glanced around in an aloof manor and trailed after Izumi as he ran-stumbled over to my brother and I. He knelt down next to us and looked me over. I nearly choked. The scent of his magic was over powering. He must have been laying it on pretty heavy. What could he have been doing to have used so much. I squinted in order to focus on him. He looked tired. Too tired to carry out a healing spell. What happened?

I opened my mouth to ask, but he stopped me by lifting his hand. "Hush, Yamato. Conserve your strength, you're going to need it." He smiled at me reassuringly, resting his hands on my armor plated chest. 

I sighed mentally. I could say the same for you.

I closed my eyes and relaxed as Izumi began to mutter the incantation. A warm glow enveloped me and I slowly regained feeling in my lower body. Bones a lined them selves and knit back together. Open wounds bled out infections and sealed, color flowed back into my skin and (joy of joys) my head ache left me. This all took much longer then it took to describe however. 

The glow faded and I opened my eyes. No pain. I tested each one of my limbs. All of them responded to my commands. No pain, or aches and I weren't coughing up anymore body fluids. All in all, a damned good job. I sat up and looked to Izumi just in time to watch his eyes roll back into his head as he slumped over onto the ground.

Well, shit.

27. Joe -_-

Damn that bitch... I can't believe the unnecessary measures to which I had go to to take over this first kingdom... That Kari... I still can't stand her... All this marching... Even if I am on a horse... The sound gives me a headache...

I pulled the bow from my back, sighted an arrow, holding it there a quiet moment before calmly loosing it...There was a pleasant, meaty thwack as it was embedded in the back of the skull of the idiot drummer who pounded doggedly away at the silly thing. He crumpled wordlessly. "Hmph...That's better...That drum was getting on my nerves.." I sneered, paying no heed to the frightened looks some of the soldiers riding quietly to either side and somewhat behind me threw. I sniggered; they would get the same if such impertinance continued...I noticed one of the soldiers stop at the fallen man, whispering a name..

"Agu-san.." There was a sniff. 

That one fell with another pleasant sound...I stifled a grin as he toppled over with a gentle sigh, as if he were falling asleep...with an arrow sticking jaggedly from between his shoulder blades. 

As the march wore on, battle and seige plans took form in my ingenius mind. The snorting of restless mounts, clank of metal, and creaking of leather did little for my thoughts. I mentally surveyed the vast horde behind me; I knew it stretched in masses to the far horizon, calvary to the front, and pikemen close behind...Archers following, foot soldiers to the back, and finally, a second row of archers... Any number of my army, of course, were expendable for the conquest of Queen Kari's kingdom...Any number of lives, man, woman and child...That childish whore would get a bitter mouthful of my sweet revenge if *I* had any say in matters!!

The corner of my mouth twisted upwards in a smile as I could feel it...My greatest victory...Against she who'd ruined everything!!!!

My lip curled in a snarl...She'd been the cause that had witheld my marriage to my beloved Sora...How I did love her...Kari and her stupid, devolved excuse for a Duke, Taichi...That bastard!! He'd stolen MY Sora!!! 

In my fuming rage, I'd developed my Plan. I would become the Duke's alchemist, in the guise of a loyal subject, and overthrow his weak grip on his holdings! I had worked long and hard...scheming, always scheming...After taking over the Duchy, I would convince my Sora to marry me...Sadly, it hadn't worked...But that was acceptable... Now, with nothing to stop me but the palace walls, I would take my revenge on Kari!!!

But, of course, I sneered, vengeance on my brother, the lucky twit, would soon follow...The first born of my family wouldn' t enjoy many more days of life!!! That snivelling, cross-eyed sibling of mine, Shin, would pay for his fortune in being first...

And Koushiro!! How could I forget my great rival? Yes, rival...Though he had more power, he, too, would meet his fall...Slowly, painfully, he would pay for every spell he cast...For every incantation he muttered...And for that test he cheated on in wizardry school !!!!!!!!!!!

I laughed. It was so...simple. Tears came to my eyes at the bliss of it all. I couldn't loose!! I was invinceable!! Nothing stood in my way! Nothing...And no one. 

I unsheathed my sword, hefting it with another, sweet, arcane laugh. A whistling, overcheerful soldier ventured too close...The poor guy lost his head as I swung the glimmering steel blade deftly. "Oops..." I murmured with a grin as the head toppled from the still body, the supid beast that one had once ridden plodding along even as it's master's glazed eyes stared up silently from it's place on the ground. 

As I chanced a look ahead, I saw the towering spires of the castle looming in the distance, the evenly cut stones shining with a pale gilded light in the afternoon sun. My grin widened...

There was a deep pounding of hooves as a crimson-cloaked advisor strode up on his sleek mount. I arced a brow mildly as he relayed his thoughts.

"Lord, I highly advise your personage not to-" He gulped as he stared at his reflection from the warhost's leader's dangerousely dark eyes. 

"I'll do what I please, how I please, when it pleases me to do it. You may leave now." I had pulled my steed to a halt, staring at this snobby, richly-clad official. His own horse stopped and pawed the dusty earth with a snort, it's rider stammering wordlessly. 

My blade whipped around, hissing like a striking serpent as it embedded itself in the chest of the man...I smiled as crimson the same color as his cloak ran down the steel. His eyes were widened forever in terror and shock, a strangled choke bubbling from his throat. And he slid off of the horse, which fled at the strong scent of blood.

And I laughed. 


	9. 28-30 BACKLASH: The Bet

Disclaimer: Not mine, no money, don't sue

Disclaimer: Not mine, no money, don't sue...

For further warnings, see part 1

Also: We do not own Grandia (though we wish we did!) I'd also like to thank Tolkien, Shakespeare and the creator of Slayers for all their help! (figuratively) We do not own Slayers, Midsummer Night's Dream, or The Hobbit. And have no fear, Fushigi Yugi makers, we will return your pawns to you unscathed.

28. Koushirou ^_~

I awoke to the face of a gorgeous angel… 

And then I realized it was Yamato. At least, I think it was Yamato… although instead of usual, he had this tacky white hair… I also noticed that he looked more feminine than most guys, but that thought was probably induced by whatever caused me to pass out. At least, I hope so.

"You passed out."

Duh, I thought. Brilliant, Sir Yamato. I would have never come to that conclusion without you.

He leaned forward, some of his newly frosted hair drooped over his black head band and into his face. He appeared paler since the last time I saw him. Most likely due to the energy drain he was subjected to. 

He looked like he needed a vacation… I felt like I needed his vacation and then some. 

The white-haired knight peered hard at and over me, as if searching for something, probably injuries. He shook his head, appearing not to approve of what he saw. He pulled off his glove and pressed his right palm against my forehead. His touch felt cool, which I remembered was a bad sign. He pulled away his arm with a jerk, "He's burning up," Sir Yamato muttered. 

I heard a higher-pitched gasp. Mimi? "What can we do for him?"

Takeru's face came into view, outlined by a rim of trees, "Can you tell what's wrong with him?" he gestured towards me.

I felt pathetic, I could hear and see them fine, I could smell the pine air of the forest we were in, but I couldn't seem to move, not even my eyes. I felt like an invalid blank, I could barely think straight, but I couldn't stand this. I tried to speak, but my mouth just wouldn't respond. I wanted to tell them I was okay. I wanted to tell Mimi that I was okay…

"I'm not sure, but he's lacking all magical presence, like he's drained all the magic from his body…not only that but he is unresponsive." He sighed, "These are all sure signs of Backlash." Yamato finished solemnly.

Mimi gasped and knelt down next to me, "Backlash!"

Takeru's face creased in worry, "Backlash…"

"What's Backlash?" the Duke's voice put in, somewhere beyond my vision.

The brothers sweatdropped and Mimi shuddered. She cast Yamato a side-long glance, "You win. He really IS that stupid." She passed him some American dollars. "Sorry, I didn't believe you. I just didn't think anything could possibly be THAT dense."

The knight grinned and pocketed his prize, "Apology accepted."

"It's your turn to explain it to him, Sir." Takeru slid in. 

Sir Yamato sighed. "Backlash is the exhaustion of one's magic essence. He has exerted more magic energy then his body could produce at a given time. He is physically and mentally drained. He's lucky it's not any worse. It could cause permanent damage." Yamato seemed to have forgotten to whom he was speaking. 

Kamiya's eyes glazed over. "Ummm…"

"I SAID! He's tired!" growled the knight, "IS THAT SIMPLE ENOUGH FOR YOU!!!?!!" 

Yamato looked to Mimi who sighed in frustration. 

"Izumi's body is working to heal his channels while he rests," he continued ,"on top of that he's running a fever from the strain." 

The Duke looked puzzled, "Channels? Like on TV?"

Yamato returned the puzzled look, "What's TV? Has that been invented yet?"

His Grace shook his head with a patronizing stare, "Oh, you humble subjects don't know ANYTHING, do you?"

I watched in gleeful amusement, as Mimi and Takeru had to be bound and gagged to keep from killing the Duke. Yamato had simply collapsed from what was obviously an anger-induced aneurysm. 

Five minutes later, after the Duke had been gagged, I realized that I couldn't keep up this kind of stress on my body. Even though I hadn't done anything, if I didn't get help soon, staying conscious wasn't going to be an easy feat. Already, I could barely remember what was going on anymore… I could've sworn that Mimi, Takeru, and Yamato had all been indisposed about five minutes ago…

While I was occupied in a gruesome battle to keep my eyes open, my hearing faded further until it came to me that what they all said was merely muted murmurs in the background of my semi-conscious state. 

And in this state, the full impact suddenly struck me. I've got backlash. I CAN'T have backlash! I'm the best wizard this side of the Modem sea! I graduated first in my class, with more natural power than nearly any other mage, witch, or sorceror! I've heard of Backlash before, several of my classmates got it during the semester exams, but they were always the weaker mages, like Clef or Joe. I wonder what ever happened to that one jerk, Joe... He cheated on his semester exam... But anyway, back to my plight:

BACKLASH!!!

Duh, Izumi. Think a minute. How much magic have I been using lately? Well, there was that battle. That battle! At least twenty spells right there! And that lightning flash spell! Oh, and then when Mimi was hurt! Poor Mimi, I wish... But that was just once I that I used Healing, right? No, wait, when I had that concussion! Yamato's near-death! And all that teleporting! And with passengers! And that first battle with Devi before the auction! Oh, that Dream Mirror spell really took it out of me. I'm so stupid! No wonder... I may never be able to use magic again... What if that happened?

Would I be worth anything? Would anyone care what happened? Would Mimi care? 

But it's just so... I can't be... But I... and then.... It was as if Nature herself stood up and slapped me in the face and told me to stand in the corner. I felt degraded... I felt worthless... I felt like I wanted to die... Or at least sleep...

Yea...sleep...

29. MIMI $_$

"The Queen's going to kill me..."

Wha? I reached out just in time to catch Kou-chan as he fainted. Well, not really catch him, more like break his fall. I crash to the ground in a heap with poor exhausted Kou-chan landing right in my lap. Ow... This boy is heavier than he looks. Although, I thought as I righted myself, he is adorable when he's sleeping...

I brushed some soot leftover from the wizard's battle off the cobblestone streets of the town as I shifted him into a more comforable position and stared at him for a moment. For not the first time, I wondered at how young he looked, especially now in his unconscious state...A kind of childish content covered his face, just short of a smile. Yet there were still the delicate lines of worry traced into his forehead...I softly ran a hand through his hair, faintly toying with his raggedly-cut bangs, and he murmured quietly, turning almost imperceptibly. I couldn't help but hide a smile myself...

Of course, there wasn't any way I would be doing this if Kou-chan were awake...

...But...He *was* cute...

His eyes fluttered open and I pulled my hands away, disguising a streak of crimson as I became suddenly very interested in the cobblestone ground...

"Umm, are you okay Kou-chan?" I stammered.

Kou-chan raised an eyebrow at me, "Kou-chan? -chan not -san? A bit presumptuous, are we?"

I blushed even more furiously. "I... Um I,"

He laughed and smiled sweetly up at me, "I like it really, You can call me that if you want to."

I turned and blushed as I recognized my own words. I couldn't help but smile, once again...I couldn't seem to help it...I mean... Around Kou-chan I always feel so... 

About then I realized that Kou-chan was STILL lying in my lap. He seemed to notice the same, scrambling up in a desperate attempt to turn his burning face...

We both groped for just about anything to break the uncomfortable silence while in the quiet center of the town. 

"So...uh...where's Pata?"

The young wizard ran his fingers through his unruly locks, "In hiding at the moment. He didn't want to see any fighting. So he claimed..."

"Well, Pata was never one for violence..." I slid a sideways glance in his direction, "Sooooo, why did you come help me anyway? You don't even really know me..."

"Did you hear that?" questioned my red-faced Kou-chan.

"Don't try to change the subject on me! I'm serious, why did you..."

"And so am I. Did you hear that?" 

**AHAH! I found you!**

Pata flew out of nowhere, "You did?"

**Yes, I did. Wizard Izumi, I presume.**

Kou-chan looked confused, "Yeah, that's me."

**Well, a bunch of rag-tag kids in the woods helped me with a pest problem, so I'm supposed to return the favor by contacting you and asking if you'd hurry it up over there, because this one of them, the older one I think, is dying.**

I looked at my wizard curiously. What was this voice talking about?

Kou-chan paled slightly, and muttered a very long word I assumed had an ill mannered meaning. "Where are they?" he asked hurriedly.

The voice gave him a location I was not aquainted with.

"We'll be right there."

"Be right where?" I asked Kou-chan, looking slightly miffed by the fact that I had NO idea what was going on. "What was that bastard talking about?"

Kou-chan sighed, looking a bit unnerved. "I was traveling with some friends (and a young Duke) and it appears that they have gotten them selves into a bit of a scrape. I have to go and bail them out of it."

"Yeah, well, you said: "We'll be right there,". You immediately assumed that just because you rescued me it means that I have to follow you around like..like.."

"A slave girl?" he offered.

"Yeah!"

He lowered his eyes, obviously hurt, "You mean you don't want.."

"On the other hand," I continued without skipping a beat, "You did buy me," I slid up to him and brushed my lips against his cheek gently, "So, in reality, you own me, right?"

I had never seen a shade of red quite that dark before. My Kou-chan tried to sputter an answer but I waved him silent. "Just take for granted that I'm coming with you, okay?"

I smiled smugly and turned to embrace Pata, who hovered neglectedly off to the side. "You ready, my friend?"

"YUP! But ummm, where are we going to, Mimi-chan?"

"I have no earthly idea, all I know is that where we're about to go to a possibly dangerous place to save a bunch of idiots we've never met before. Fun, ne?"

"Ummm...Whatever you say, Mimi-chan..." my flying friend squeaked innocently. 

So saying, and making sure I had a neat grip on Pata, I wrapped an arm around Kou-chan, him yet again turning red, and he waved an arm offhandedly...

...And the background swirled into a bright light...Or rather an endless darkness...I'm not sure which...And were all three standing in the middle of a pretty forbidding forest, standing only a few feet away from two other people; one a young boy torn with tears (and various cute/bruises, etc. ), and the other a quite handsome, strangely white-haired young man, covered in blood and deep cuts. The younger was trying to contain wracking sobs...

I felt Kou-chan's grip weaken faintly as he loosed the arm he had draped around my shoulders...I risked a glance to him from the corner of my eye. He looked pale, and tired at that...

Without a word, he stumbled forward, nearly toppling over, to kneel at the white-haired boy's side, spreading his hands and murmuring softly...almost half asleep...

I wondered how he could push himself to such limits; he looked more than ready to collapse. It was astounding, really...After all he'd gone through to help me, and now using up so much more energy to heal..?...this person. I'd never seen, much less known, anyone with that kind of perseverance. It was a bit astounding... And he even managed to smile...

I didn't take the time to notice that the wounds of the white-haired boy had begun to stitch themselves up, until there was nothing left of them.. .Or that his eyes slowly flickered open, just as those of my Kou-chan gently closed with a sigh. 

I swallowed a yelp and jumped to catch his slumping form as the older one rose to his elbows, glancing around with a dazed look. I bit my lip worriedly before suddenly realizing the situation and turning to look again at the staring, newly revived boy. 

We stared at each other for a really, really long time, oblivious for the moment to the sounds of the still wailing young one, unsure what to do.

**Oh my,** an odd voice suddenly stated, snapping the white-haired boy and I out of our trance **What happened to this boy?**

The blond youth behind us suddenly turned to the large tree that I realized was bleeding profusely out of several severed limbs. The mossy ground beneath us looked as if something had erupted violently from it. What had happened here? 

"I...don't know.." he sniffed and wiped his eyes, furiously. "We need to get him back to camp. We can figure out to do from theaaaAAAHHH!" 

"Pata!" I reached over and snatched the little bat-pig out of the boys lap. "No playing around right now, this is a serious matter!"

"Yes, Mimi-chan."

"W-what is that?"

"Calm down, Takeru," the youths older companion spat, "We've seen worse. We worked for the Duke for a while remember?" 

"Oh, yeah. Sorry, Yamato, I forgot. Anyway, what is it?"

"His name is Pata, I'll explain later," I said quickly, clutching Pata to my chest protectively, "but right now shouldn't we do SOMETHING to help, Kou-chan!!"

At that, the one called Yamato looked at me sideways and raised an eyebrow skeptically. After a moment of this he cleared his throat and turned to Takeru, "She's right," he said solemnly, his eyes settling on my unconscious Kou-chan, "I'll get the Wizard and escort the woman to camp, you work on acquiring the blood." 

Blood? I thought, What is Kou-chan doing with these people? This white-haired knight keeps giving me wary glances... And he needs to get out of that bloody armor. After some careful debate, I decided to go along with the knight and see what kind of information I could get...

"Hey, come on," Yamato-san called, hefting Kou-chan into his arms and walking slowly toward where I assumed their camp was. 

I nodded and followed, matching his pace and putting on my best smile. I'm going to get to the bottom of this. Kou-chan's travelling companions: A white-haired knight who needed an armor change, a scratched-up blond boy with an order to gather blood. And hadn't he mention something about a Duke? The only duke in this area was of the Takenouchi Duchy in south Server... which would explain Queen Kari's crest on Yamato's red-stained mail. 

"Mimi-chan," Pata whispered into my ear, "You've got that look on your face again."

I murmured back in mild surprise, "What look?"

"That look that you're up to something," Pata's hushed voice began, "Last time I saw that look, we got captured by Myotis for snooping..."

"So, what's that thing that you're talking to there?" Yamato asked point blank.

I blinked a little when I realized he had beaten me to the point. I also caught a glimpse of lighter skies as I realized morning approached.

"My name's Pata!" he announced before I could even begin to stop him, "I'm a flying mythic creature."

Yamato's eyes widened at the statement, then narrowed as he smiled knowingly, "Oh, I see, so that's why you're here... You're the creature's owner and wouldn't let Izumi borrow him without you around..." he seemed to have more to say, but ceased talking anyway.

"Well, actually, right now, I'm wondering how he could've expended all of his magic essence at once, so what has he been doing recently?" I asked casually.

Yamato thought for a moment, "Well, this quest has been pretty strenuous," he paused, pulling a lock of white hair down in front of his eyes and frowning sadly, "My hair USED to have color..."

I grinned a bit, "Hmmm... I don't know, your hair looks cute that way. But what happened to it?"

He steeled up, "I was attacked..."

"No kidding," I pointed at the three large gaping holes in his armor, "By what?"

He mumbled something. "A tree..."

A tree? WHAT? I thought, but I said, "Oh."

"Yeah, I'm not all that thrilled about the fact. Takeru had to save me, and Izumi had to heal me and he ended up with backlash... Does wonders for your conscience..." he stated satirically, hefting my Kou-chan's weight into a comfortable position.

"Takeru? That's that little blond boy, right?" I confirmed as Yamato nodded, "Is he your brother? He looks a lot like you..."

"Hai." He replied.

Alright, so he's interested in Pata, just like Koushirou. He's also acknowledged that they are on a quest, but for what? A tree and a bat-pig? And what does Queen Kari and the Takenouchi Duchy have to do with anything? I scanned him, he was wearing the tattered, useless armor, about his waist was a sword sheath and a lumpy pouch. I wondered what could be in it.

"And this quest... could it possibly have anything to do with the fact that Takenouchi's Duchess has been put under a spell?" I implored, sure that I was on the correct track. A bardess DOES have her sources.

Yamato pulled a double-take and tripped, "Nothing gets past you, huh?"

I smiled, "Just think of me as a Dark Ages reporter..."

Yamato stood back up, brushing himself off and picked my Kou-chan off the muddy swamp soil. Continuing on, he graced me with a dazzling smile ( It's a shame he doesn't act as bright as his teeth) and another smart-ass remark, "So, Louis Lane, what is your deduction so far? What else can you figure?"

"Well, from the look of you, you're obviously one of Queen Hikari's. You're here to assist the Queen's unfortunate older brother," I sighed, "It must be terrible getting kicked off own land like that, and his WIFE! I feel sorry for him…"

At that Yamato busted up laughing. Bastard. What did he find so funny? "What?!" I yelled.

He slowly composed himself, tears of mirth dripping down his cheeks. When he had caught his breath he asked, "Why would you feel sorry for such a idiotic fool? He brought it on himself though is own stupidity."

"Fool? But…"

Yamato cut me off, "What rock have you been hiding under? Have you not met or anything?"

I glared at him, that bastard had just insulted my competence as a bard. Grudgingly, I shook my head 'no'.

He stopped just inside some trees on the edge of a clearing near the water. I could see a single canvas tent through a brake in the thick gnarled branches along with a bundle of stick I assumed used to be a campfire. 

I turned my attention back to the Knight as he proceeded to tell me horror stories about the Duke. I didn't believe it. NO one could be THAT incompetent!

"You're making that up." I accused.

Yamato sighed and gave me a pitting look, "You still have faith in human kind."

"You're right," I declared loudly, "and I bet you 100 American Dollars that the Duke isn't as bad as you make him out to be."

"I refuse, it's against the code a chivalry to steal money from women."

"You're saying I'll lose that easy?"

"Hell, yes."

Smiled mockingly at him, "You can't take a women's money, but you'll use filthy language? That's not befitting a knight, now is it? I believe they call it hypocrisy."

He shrugged his shoulders as best he could with my Kou-chan in his arms, "Fine," he muttered, "but don't say I didn't warn you." 

"Bastard." I muttered for no apparent reason. It's my favorite word. I love saying it. 

Yamato recoiled, "It's not my fault I'm afraid of water!" 

"I'm not talking about you!!!"

He looked at me strangely, "Then what...?" he shook his head. "Never mind, I should know better than to question a bard."

I smiled, "Oh, you're smarter than you look," I teased.

He shot me a dirty look, "Oh gee, thanks..."

"No prob--*" I began, "Hey, don't drop Kou-chan!"

He raised an eyebrow, "'Kou-chan'?"

I blushed.

"I see." He gave me a knowing look, but, oddly enough, didn't smile. He seemed almost disapproving. It passed quickly. He (finally) stepped through the break in the trees and into the makeshift camp site, carefully avoiding the water's edge. Moving to the center of the clearing, the knight lay Kou-chan down on the mossy ground and began to look him over again. 

The sun was now full faced in the sky just above the trees, fully illuminating the dreary camp. A fog hung low on the water despite the hot daylight, casting an eerie feeling around the area.

"You passed out," I heard Yamato whisper to Kou-chan.

I saw Kou-chan's eyes flutter open to sparkle with clear thought but then dim and seal tightly.

"Oh, Kou-chan..." I muttered under my breath.

"HEY! BRO!" I heard the younger boy's voice, Takeru called from the forest and appeared holding a vile of deep red liquid with glittering green flecks. I had a hunch it was the tree's blood, and my hunches are almost never wrong.

"Takeru, good, you got it, now we've got all four ingredients, now hand it here before you-know-who wakes up and screws everything to hell..." The knight said bitterly.

I hovered next to Yamato overlooking Kou-chan, "Who's you-know-who?"

They both panicked, "SSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSHHH!!!! He'll hear you!" The two brothers hushed me in unison.

I thought a second before it dawned upon me that they were referring to the infamous Duke I had placed my faith in, "Oh, come on, now, you two, Duke Kamiya can NOT be as stupid as you make him out to be!" I brushed my hair back casually.

"What? Did someone call my name?" I heard a high-pitched, but definitely male voice.

Takeru squeaked, "No!"

Yamato sighed, "Now look what you've done..."

The man whom I guessed for the duke poked his head out the tent and then climbed out lithely. He stood fairly short, about an inch above my own height. If you included his incredibly huge brown hair! This guy had more hair than a fur dealership! His wide brown eyes matched his hair nicely, but it was his eyes which betrayed that his innocence was definitely due to naivete. I pondered over whether or not I should've bet so much with Yamato...

"Good Evening, my fellows! How are you doing this lovely time of the day?" the duke asked in the bright sunlight...

"Uh oh," I muttered.

Yamato snickered.

I shot him a mean look, "Um, good morning, sir!"

"Oh my! Who is this young woman who has stumbled into our camp!? Could she be a maid in need of rescuing? Maybe an evil monster is ripping her from limb to limb!" The man ranted suddenly.

"Um... I'm standing right here, not being torn limb from limb," I muttered through gritted teeth, hoping he was just joking.

He peered into my face, a serious look of distrust in his eyes, "Then you are an evil trickster-witch sent to lure us into certain doom by telling us tales of such things as limb-rendering!"

"WHAT!?"

Yamato and Takeru were all but rolling on the ground from laughter. Yamato spoke up, "But Duke, can't you see this woman is but a mere bardess?" he edged the duke onward. The bastard!

"Oh, no, my friend," The Duke began, " You see, that 'tis what she WANTS you to believe, if you're not careful, she'll use her evil faerie enchantment upon you!"

"But just a minute ago, I was a witch, and now I'm a faerie!?" I asked, enraged.

"AH HA!!!! So you ADMIT IT! You ARE ELVIS!!!!!" 

"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!"

I screamed.

"I'll KILL HIM!!!!!!!! He's DEAD!!!!!!!!!!!!"

"No, no, you won't, *I* get to kill him!" Yamato held me back as I fumed my anger off.

"Grr..." I muttered, realizing I would lose the bet, "He's just joking... he HAS to be... I'm not giving in...!" I said, *As long as he doesn't say anything else stupid... I should survive... I should survive!* I thought plaintively.

"Oh, his eyes are open again, LOOK! At Wizard Izumi!," Takeru shouted, pointing towards Kou-chan.

"Oh, what can we do for him?" I asked, dropping Duke Kamiya's soon-to-be-lifeless body.

Yamato looked solemn as he kneeled down next to My Kou-chan. The squire, worriedly hovered near his older brother, "Can you tell what's wrong with him?" he asked, gesturing in my Kou-chan's direction.

"I'm not sure, but he's lacking all magical presence, like he's drained all the magic from his body…not only that but he is unresponsive." He sighed, "These are all sure signs of Backlash." Yamato finished solemnly.

I gasped and knelt down next to My Kou-chan, "Backlash!"

Takeru's face creased in worry, "Backlash…"

"What's Backlash?" the Duke put in.

That did it. I shuddered in revulsion and Yamato snickered. "You win. He really IS that stupid." I grudgingly passed him some American dollars. "Sorry, I didn't believe you. I just didn't think anything could possibly be THAT dense."

The knight grinned and pocketed his prize, "Apology accepted."

"It's your turn to explain it to him, Sir." Takeru slid in. 

The whited haired man sighed. "Backlash is the exhaustion of one's magic essence. He has exerted more magic energy than his body could produce at a given time. He is physically and mentally drained. He's lucky it's not any worse. It could cause permanent damage." 

The Duke had a blank look on his face, "Ummmm..."

He snapped, "I SAID! He's tired! IS THAT SIMPLE ENOUGH FOR YOU!!!?!!" Yamato practically screamed.

The knight glanced darkly my way as a sigh slid through my clenched teeth. 

"Izumi's body is working to heal his channels while he rests," he continued ,"on top of that he's running a fever from the strain." 

The Duke looked puzzled, "Channels? Like on TV?"

Yamato returned the puzzled look, "What's TV? Has that been invented yet?"

That Bastard shook his head with a patronizing stare, "Oh, you humble subjects don't know ANYTHING, do you?"

I snarled and dived, wreathed in various blades and other such objects of slow and painful direction towards the Duke in time with Takeru, and was nearly about to end the horrible existence of that Demon Spawn when Yamato whipped out a length of rope and some old socks. He proceeded to bind and gag us with a stifling show of coldness, that bastard. Of course, that done he simply collapsed from an anger-induced aneurysm. 

To my wrathful glee, within minutes the Duke, if anyone could stand to call him that, was also bound and gagged. But it was short lived as I remembered with a start that Kou-chan still hadn't pulled out of the Backlash symptoms...

30. ^_^!! Takeru

This mission has been really annoying. First, we got stuck with the Duke. Then, there was that thing with the Icarians... And I'll never forget the faerie party... And battling with the tree sucked. Also, poor Wizard Izumi caught Backlash and Yamato was currently carrying him over his shoulder. However, the absolute worst part of this entire ordeal has to be trying to convince my brother that his hair is FINE! 

We were walking behind the others a bit, with the Duke in the lead. Mimi was busy keeping him on the right path. So, of course, prompted by the existence of a pretty girl in his midst, Yamato was stressing about his newly-changed hair color.

"DOES IT REALLY LOOK OKAY!?" he panicked at the highest decibel level possible without letting Mimi hear. I still wonder how he does that...

I sighed, and for the eighteenth time, I replied, "Bro, you look fine... in fact, you look better than fine, you look awesome, and if you still don't like it, I'm sure it'll return to its original color eventually or else you can just dye it..."

My brother sighed, "I guess, you're right," he repeated, I braced myself for the coming outburst.

"BUT ARE YOU SURE IT REALLY LOOKS OKAY!?" he shouted.

I sighed, and ignored him, "Y'know, you're gonna wake up Wizard Izumi if you keep that up... and you're the one who said he needs rest."

"Well," the knight began, "Speaking of rest, I think we need a break, Mimi looks like she's gonna kill the Duke again, and I'm not in the mood to try to stop her..."

I looked up at the sun. It was hanging low over the horizon, night would be falling soon. After he wizard had collapsed, we waited till morning then built a tripod out of tree branches to carry him. Time was of the essence and we couldn't hang around till he recovered. Though I hope he recovers soon...

A short while later we were clear of the forest after a harrowing experience involving the Duke and a go-cart. The wizard had since stabilized and was looking to be on the verge of recovery. The bardess, Mimi, still seemed really upset over Koushirou's dilemma. Taking advantage of this, was my brother Yamato, who seemed to think he could score some points by consoling her. I wouldn't have minded scoring a few points myself, but I still had my eyes set on another, though there was no denying that Mimi was VERY pretty.

But we still continued on, regardless of the river we passed along the way... water scares me. Yamato almost flipped, but managed to hold control, obviously because of a pretty girl's presence. He's kind of funny that way, everything about him screams honesty and strength, but when it comes to girls... he's weird. Oh, and the Duke managed to piss off another band of gypsies, which slowed us down for about half a day when we had to figure out how to un-curse poor Pata who had been locked in an unbreakable puzzle box known only as a "Rubix Cube TM". All this and we were STILL trying to get to the duchy with the dead weight that was Wizard Koushirou Izumi.

That is... until Koushirou FINALLY woke up! (Why do I feel more like a narrator instead of an actual character in this chapter?)

Koushirou groaned and rolled over. Little Pata flitted up to him and landed on my shoulder to peer at the wizard, "Is he still alive?" 

I flushed a bit, "Yes, of course he's alive!"

"Well, he's awake, too," Pata stated matter-of-factly.

"Well, of COURSE he's awake! Why shouldn't he... What? He's awake!?!?" I gasped in surprise as I turned to the figure lying in the makeshift tree branch stretcher we had crafted. Koushirou's eyes were wide open and he grinned at me with a sour expression on his face.

"Can you watch the bumps? I've got a major headache..." he joked.

No sooner had the words left his mouth then did Mimi Tachikawa leap over to the poor wizard and drag him into the air in a violent, yet sweet, hug, "KOU-CHAN! YOU'RE AWAKE! I'M SO RELIEVED!"

"Good to see you, too," Koushirou laughed, "Nice to see you've missed me."

Yamato came running up behind me, "Izumi!" he slapped the wizard on the back in a friendly gesture, "You're finally up! Nice to see you've joined us! I can't believe how wore out you were. Still you've recovered pretty well."

Koushirou suppressed a laugh.

"What?" my older brother inquired.

Koushirou snickered, "Your hair..." he chuckled, "It's... it's," and then he bust out laughing.

The captain of the knights brought a gloved fist to Koushirou's head, "Some thanks that is for me hauling you around all this time."

Koushirou squirmed an arm from Mimi's grasp and nursed a spot on his head where the fist had connected, "Sorry, if you'll accept my apologies, Captain, I meant no disrespect, I just couldn't help it, it's such a change from your normal color."

It was then that the Duke noticed Koushirou's awakening. He stormed up and glowered in the wizard's face with a dirty look in his eyes, "You..." Taichi spoke threateningly, "You're the one that's been causing all this trouble! It's all YOUR fault, I'm sure of it."

Koushirou stuttered, unsure, "I-I... uh..."

His Grace spoke again, curiously, "Who are you, anyway?" he smiled.

The rest of us groaned simultaneously, while Koushirou sweatdropped, "I'm Wizard Izumi, Duke Kamiya."

"What!? Your last name is Kamiya? What a surprise! MY last name is Kamiya, too! You must be my long-lost brother!" the Duke said enthusiastically.

I sweatdropped again as Koushirou gestured to continue on. As we walked, Koushirou took it upon himself to try to explain to Taichi who he was. I had a feeling I would have to restrain somebody from killing the Duke again. We also crossed a river... ::shiver::


	10. 31-33 We're Running out of Time: 3-2-1 ...

Ethan Frome

Disclaimer: Not mine, no money, Don't sue.

For further warnings, see part 1

Also: We do not own Grandia (excellent video game BTW, tons of cool plot!), nor do we own Slayers (Tho we blatantly abuse their character's names…), or Redord of Lodoss War, Tolkien's stories, or Square's Final Fantasy Series (But we love creative and varied Fantasy stories and borrow bits and pieces…) A Midsummer Night's Dream or Fushigi Yuugi (Yet we're not above bastardizing their characters…) nor Ranma 1/2, The Neverending Story, and of course Digimon Adventure! ^_^ We're not making money, so none of you mind this, ne?

31. ~_~ YAMATO

We struggled over the grudging crest of the last hill that stood between us and our goal (namely the end of our journey...The Kamiya Duchy), all of us breathless and haggard, wanting to lynch the Duke from the nearest tree, and yet still happy beyond words that we had finally made it. We didn't have any real clue that this was certainly not the end of our journey...But we clung to the feeble hope like city rats to a prime piece of garbage. But, as we arrayed ourselves to look down upon the citadel, our hearts and hopes crumbled. This would not be easy.

Thunderheads adamantly clouded the sky above it, (the moat especially, it seemed to me), casting telltale shadows on the age-old stone that made up the central spire, and, even shadows as they were, chill winds whispering through the trampled and brittle grass seemed to be their whispers, futile dapples of light twisted to be evil, scolding eyes. I snatched TK's collar as he turned around, saying, "Well, nobody can say we didn't try." 

Wizard Izumi even sighed, and pursed his lips in heavy thought. "Well...Only about an hour left. Let's make it count...." And here we all thought he would faint. But, surprisingly, he held himself together and took a fateful step in the direction of the accursed moat- I mean duchy. I hate my life...

So We trod over the dead, whispering grass, towards the forsaken place, wordless, except for the blithering Duke...And we all strained not to murder him then and there.

"Oh, my, this place looks familiar..." He intoned. An arrow neatly whirred over his head, and Takeru vowed to improve his aim. 

And not long afterwards, I was slapped awake by an exhasperated Izumi...On the other side of the moat.

"Ow!! What was that for!?!?"

"You freaked out when we had to cross the moat."

"Oh..."

"Yeah."

"Um."

"Oh, look, my faithful companions! A moat!!!"

This last statement was exclaimed by the Duke. Everyone else turned a horrible green shade, and I'd stake my life on the fact that I did too.

So, we crossed the...the water.... And ran through the open gates, to a large, open stone chamber with a spiralling staircase at one of it's far corners. Did I mention that there were people there, too? Oh, yes! This place was guarded. Rather heavily. 

"Oh, $H!T!!!"

"Takeru, watch you mouth!"

And the five, no, seven, wait, there were more... armed, armored, and a few not-quite-human things unsheathed their glittering, perfect, straight blades in glittering unison. And charged us in one of those earth-quaking teeth-shattering, scream-filled charges that make big, hulking, fearless, war-seasoned veterans hug their teddy bears and call for their mommies. 

But, you couldn't save a damsel and look heroic hugging a teddy bear, so, in a blaze of knightly inspiration, (also known as stupidity), I whipped out my chipped and somewhat-battered sword, my brother following in example, and, at the call of "Three!" we rushed back at them.

It was an awesome den of confusion, helmeted faces at my right and left, arms rising and falling in attempts to hack me limb from limb. And then...And then I transcended physical laws, and let my sword lead me in all that exhilerating blood-lust, and spun around, twistched my wrist this or that way, jabbed to the left, darted forward and to the right, finding just the right nicks and holes in highly polished armor to make figures drop all around me, and I flashed my teeth in what I knew was a rather feral grin, and dashed to the stairs. And ground to a halt before I had gone past step two.

I gulped, my hands quavering on the hilt of my blade. A low, quiet laugh bounced off the stone walls, and all that relished courage left me. It wasn't human...That was for sure. It towered over me, a sword as tall as I clasped easily in it's gauntleted claws, a helmet masking it's face...but two assuredly red eyes leered at me. I stumbled a step back, and the thing careened down at me, torchlight glancing off it's black armor. The huge blade lifted, swept down in a beautiful, unhindered arc down for my throat, and I stumbled back, a sharp pain just under my chin. I felt a trickle of warm, stickly liquid run down in streamlets to my collarbone. I'd almost been decapitated.

Weakly, in movements so slow I was digusted with myself, I hefted my own pitifully small sword and slashed, hacked, used every trick I knew, to drive him back, yet soon I found myself back amidst the main battle...and as I ducked, dodged, parried, I spared a look for my companions.

"Bastard!Bastard!Bastard!Bastard!Bastard!Bastard!Bastar-" Two poor soldiers were getting slapped slowly unconscious by an infuriated Mimi...I blinked, and my gaze roved on over the fallen bodies.

"Oh..? You like floweres, too?!?" The Duke shrieked happily to a scrawney, pale, shakind, bladeless guard. My steps faltered.

Izumi, I noted, was pleadingly asking Mimi to please stop slapping the poor defenseless guards and not to kick them in the- oh, well, too late, and he winced. 

Now, I found my brother, who was engrossed in a single battle with one of the very few remaining guards, his slender form darting and weaving with it's particular grace, the shimmer of his sword matching that of his opponent stroke for stroke. I was, actually, a little proud.

"Nice weather we're having, ne?" My brother commented cheerfully. Thrust.

"Oh, yes! Perfect for getting a tan." The guard replied solemnley. Clang.

"Of course!! I plan to get a good one when our mission is all over." Dodge.

"Well, best of luck, than! Hope to see you at the beaches!" Parry.

I sweatdropped, and returned to the task at hand. I was now cut, superficially, in more places than I'd like to know, my breathing short and quick, while my oponent...Well...I hadn't even landed a singular hit on him, as of yet...And it became annoying, that I was so slow, so witless, that I couldn't hit such a great hulking mammoth.

I snarled, and ducked his newest slash, bringing my blade in a neat, efficient arc under it to ram the point into the mask, not enough to break through, but cause a very pretty dent. My small victory was greeted with a throaty roar that swore vengeance, and he gripped the huge sword in both hands, crouching before lunging at me, shoulder first. I paled, and did the only thing possible in such a situation. I dropped to the floor, the beast running straight past me, and while his momentum carried him forward, I flipped up, sword in hand, and two neat sliced awarded the chinks in the back of his armor- a dull green ooze started to seep through, as he turned back to face me, and I wondered if that was it's substitute for blood...But those thoughts quickly deserted me as it lurched forward, murder glowing in it's eyes.

I quavered, but raised my sword, ducking under a quick slash again meant for my head, over another meant for my feet, and I leaned forward- this was my only chance!- as he prepared for another, fatal swing, aimed to cleave through my middle- and shoved the tip of my sword through the chink in between it's breastplate and helmet, through it's neck. Searing hot, foul-smelling green stuff spewed out of the rent I hand made, splattering my face. The thing choked, spluttered, crashed to it's knees...And I shoved the blade in harder.

After it stopped twitching, a withdrew my sword...and cleaned it solemnly on a nearby tapestry that had been torn. 

32. ^_~ KOUSHIROU

I was beginning to think we would never finish ascending the tower, with having to stop every other step to fight some random guard platoon. It was getting just a little ridiculous. 

But finally, we had made it. Our small ragtag group stood in front the large iron-bound door that would (or at least SHOULD) lead us to the end of our quest. 

Captain Yamato spent a moment gazing at the door in unspeakable relief and just a little bit of apprehension. Takeru mirrored his brother. 

"My, this place looks familiar…" the Duke commented fingering a tapestry hanging on the stone wall. "You know, I have a wall hanging JUST like this one… I wonder if it's from the same company."

Mimi twitched visibly beside me. "Yamato…" she growled, "Open the damn door so we can hurry up and ditch this Bastard!" The bardess looked pointedly at His 'Grace'.

Apparently no further incentive was required. The young knight and squire grasped the large iron door, swung it open and stepped into the Royal Bedchamber. 

"Shit." 

"Watch you're mouth," came the reflexive reply. 

With out warning there a was a sudden explosion of metal on metal. Another battle!? With whom? I strained to see but The Duke and Mimi where blocking the threshold. It's times like these where I seriously regret my lacking in the height department. 

"Might I inquire what's going on?" I yelled above the din. Instead of answering my question Mimi-chan grabbed me by my collar and hauled me inside. 

An Ogremon! Jyou had most likely placed the Ogremon in the Royal Bedchamber to guard the Duchess. The grotesque snaggletoothed monster raised his spiked club high and smashed it into the stone floor. It would have made a rather nasty bloody mess if it wasn't for the brothers' swift reflexes. 

"WAIT!!" Mimi screamed.

The fighters all stopped in mid swing and looked at her. 

"WE'VE ONLY GOT," She pulled out her stop watch and quickly did the math, "5 MINUTES TILL DUCHESS SORA BECOMES A PERMANENT PIGEON PERCH!" 

We all blinked at her and she just smiled sweetly, "You can continue now."

Mimi-chan plopped down beside me as I hovered over an ornate writing desk littered with the de-petrifaction spell ingredients. The fight still went on in the background with the loud clashing of metal, smashing stone or furniture and the occasional thundering roar from ogre. It was giving me a headache. 

"Any luck?" she asked looking at her watch. "3 minutes by the way."

"No pressure," I muttered putting my head in my hands. 

"I'll take that as a 'no'."

"And you would be correct," came my stressed reply..

"Well, lets see what we have here." Grinning, the bardess wrapped her arms around my shoulders, clasping her hands under my chin, and leaned over my shoulder to scrutinize the objects the on the table. I felt my face grow hot. She was just a little too close. "Um, Mimi.."

She ignored me. "Well, you have blood, tears, and a feather."

"And a Orihalcon." I added. 

"Orihalcon?" She scanned the table. "I don't see one..."

A small statue flew over our heads, smacked into the wall in front of us and fell on the table. I hoped it wasn't broken. 

"Thanks Yama." Mimi called back absently, still obviously thinking about something.

"No problem" He yelled back and returned to the fight. 

I was stumped. Now what? I've got the ingredients, I know the incantation... what else had Wizard Mon said? Oh, that's right, he didn't say... I mumbled a few choice words that I probably shouldn't have used around Mimi-chan, but I had the feeling she'd heard worse. Still... "I'm still lacking as to what it is we must achieve for this spell."

Mimi-chan nodded and ducked some flying shrapnel from the battle that was taking place behind our backs. "Well, there was this one story I'd heard from someone who claimed to be a fellow bard... I still think he was a warlock trying to escape that angry mob... But regardless, his story seems to apply to our situation. It spoke of someone who had be cursed by a Cockatrimon concoction and was turning to stone..."

I rolled my eyes, "Sounds somewhat familiar..."

Mimi-chan gaped a bit, "You made a joke... was that a joke?"

I cleared my throat, "Ahem.. the time."

Mimi-chan blinked, "Oh, right, one and half minutes."

"Okay so give me the Cliff Notes version of what he told you." 

I had no idea anyone could talk that fast and with such accuracy, too. I wondered if all bards had to learn to do that. 

"Right." Gathering the ingredients into my arms, I dropped to the floor, whipped out my chalk and drew a magic circle onto the stone floor. 

"50 seconds" Mimi intoned looking at her watch.

Okay okay...place the statue in the middle... grab the holy knife and... "Oh, wait, that's a priest spell," I tossed the knife over my shoulder and went about the rest of the spell...trace the rim of the circle with the blood and tears. Place the feather in front of the statue and...we're set.

I suddenly heard a loud roar, "RRRRRRRRRRRROOOOOOOOOOOAAAAAAAAAAAARRRRRRR--- *Thud*"

I looked over my shoulder to the Ogremon suddenly slump and fall the ground, face up. Yamato and Takeru stood stunned, swords still drawn, but drooping. Mimi-chan blinked in surprise, while the Duke still admired the familiar decorating, pawing a colorful tapestry on the wall. Looking again, I saw my holy knife imbedded in the Ogremon's forehead to the hilt. Yamato quietly added, "Nice shot..." 

I laughed nervously and was about to reply when...

"30 seconds"

Shimatta! Okay, now the incantation...what was it...? um.. "Mana of the earth, sky, rivers and flame, release the powers that..."

"20 seconds" 

"eh.." I paused, startled that she was still keeping track, "err... um..."

"15 seconds"

Shimatta, "Powers that control the realms of flesh and life," I rushed through the words, "Bestow your mercy upon this vessel..."

"10 seconds"

"etc... etc.. *SPELLBIND*!!!!" I called out.

Mimi-chan cast me a sidelong glance, "'etc... etc...?' Are you sure about this?"

"Well, I'm kinda pressed for time here!" I poised my hands around the wet, blood-stained statuette and felt the magic channel through me to power the spell. I watched enraptured as the pools of blood and tears slowly took on a will of their own and rose up timidly and begin to circle about the Orihalcon, balanced precariously in the center of the glowing magic circle. More quickly now, the liquids swirled about the statuette as the feather placed before the Orihalcon suddenly shot up and above the statuette causing a rather violent reaction. Time seemed to slow down as I gazed on, fascinated, while a bright light filled my vision followed by a resounding explosion. 

After the smoke cleared, I shook myself free of the stray shrapnel. Standing, I brushed myself off and sighed with relief as I saw Mimi-chan, Sir Yamato, and Takeru pull themselves up from the rubble. I sighed, but not with relief, as I saw Duke Kamiya also stand up from the explosion....

The Ogremon's body had apparently disintegrated... Then it hit me. "Oh, the Duchess!"

Mimi-chan paled, "What if it didn't work...? What if we weren't in time?"

Yamato scowled, "We sure shaved it close enough, we had a week to do this and we dragged it out to the last second."

"Ohhh." 

We all turned to see Duchess Sora stand and brush some rubble off of her dress.

"Yatta! It worked!" Mimi-chan hugged me.

I smiled smugly, "Hmph, see, I knew 'etc etc' would work."

33. $_$ MIMI

"MY SORA-CHAN!" 

I had to dive out of the way as the huge big haired freak that was the Duke tackled the poor hapless Duchess to the ground in the heap of arms, legs and ridiculously expensive fabric. Poor Sora. I wonder how she lives with him...

I heard a grunt behind me. When I recoiled I must have hit someone. Who...

"AH! My Kou-chan!" I whipped around to face him, but the hem of my green skirts caught on the sharp edge of some debris (It used to be the desk I think). I promptly lost my balance and found myself in the lap of my deeply blushing and very shocked Kou-chan.

"A...Ano..." he stuttered, shifting uncomfortably.

[ Author's note: 'Ano' is Japanese for 'Excuse me' and is often used as an expression of surprise or to get someone's attention]

Oh! He's so cute when he's blushing! I decided to capitalize on this opportunity or at least I would have, if not for the fact that Captain Yamato had decided to come over and see if I was okay. 

"Are you two okay?" Yamato kneeled down next to us with a very sardonic smile.

Takeru wasn't far behind and popped in over his shoulder with a mimicking expression as if he was enjoying the chance to ruin MY chance, "Hey, what're you two up to?"

I'd swear you'd think I'd planned it or something... well, okay, maybe I did... just a little... ANYWAY, I tugged my dress free of the offending shrapnel and lifted my self above the boys with a smile, "We're fine, we were just discussing the mechanics of the spell, ne Kou-chan?" I said with a wink.

My Kou-chan repeated with his usual cuteness, "A.... Ano..." Cute, yes... Articulate? Not at the moment....

Of course, Yamato's smile became more sadistic and Takeru's curiosity seemed even more peeked... Not quite the way I wanted this to turn out, but at least the adventure was finally over. We had saved the Duchess and I could go back to life as per normal... and solve some of these problems my poor Kou-chan has expressing himself...

Our little group had grown quiet, and my ears picked up voice behind me...

It was the Duke.... and he was... spouting poetry? It was a rather complex poem, I heard of it before during my years training to be a bardess. It was so complex that at the time, even *I* couldn't memorize it, and here the Duke(baka) was spouting it as if he'd written it himself! I shuddered at the thought. I stared on in absolute shock as the four of us turned our gaze to see Duke Kamiya knelt graciously before the newly-animated Duchess, eloquently reciting the delicate words of the ancient sonnet. 

My poor Kou-chan would've screamed, but young Takeru clasped his hand over his mouth in time to stop him. 

The Duke finished and kissed his wife's hand, she blushed deeply.

"Ano..." we all said in unison.

The two stopped staring at one another and the Duchess' eyes widened in shock, "Oh no! That's right! There's no time!" Duchess Sora Takenouchi turned to us, Captain Yamato specifically and quickly explained, "You've got to hurry!"

Sir Yamato blinked, confused, "Huh? What're you talking about, ma'am?"

"It's that blasted alchemist, JOE! He's storming Queen Kari's castle, and she's been left without her royal wizard and Captain of the Guard!" Her Grace explained quickly. 

The young Duke solemnly placed his hand on his wife's shoulder, "Don't worry dear," he consoled, "This is a very competent group!"

I felt my jaw go slack. I looked to Yamato to see if this was a normal occurrence, but he looked very unmoved, if not a bit annoyed, "Of course... he's only like this when he's around Duchess Sora..." he commented flippantly.

Physically lifting my jaw and placing it back into its hinge, I tried to adjust to the idea that Duke Kamiya was intelligent, but also I was a bit perturbed... I knew there was going to be ONE MORE THING! No, we couldn't just save the damsel in distress, no these stories never end like that, I should know these things! I TELL stories like this! In fact, this would make a very good one, I should write this down!

From beneath me, I heard a small voice, "Ano..."

"Oh, Kou-chan!" I reached down to pick him up off of the floor as he turned his attention to the Duchess.

"Your Grace, do you recall how long ago the evil alchemist Joe left for Her Highness' Palace?" Kou-chan asked, calculating, he's so cute when he's being serious!

The Duchess seemed stressed by this question, "About four days ago," she said quietly, "You'll never be able to catch up to him on foot, and you've only got..." she paused.

Yamato recomposed himself and quickly did the math, "Oh no, that means we've only got TWO CHAPTERS TO GET THERE!!"

Takeru gasped, "ONLY TWO!? It took us thirty-one chapters just to get here!"

Yamato sneered, "Less than two actually... we're REALLY pressed for time."

I walked over to the Captain, "Oh, surely we can think of SOMETHING to help us get there ahead of Joe, he's not exactly the brightest alchemist in the chem lab..."

The Duchess looked at me quizzically, as if noticing me for the first time. Which would be understandable considering how often I've seen Taichi act sane... that's got to be distracting! Her Grace smiled at Yamato, "Captain?" she inquired, "Who is this? Is this fine young lady you're newest consort?"

This time is was Sir Yamato's turn to say, "Ano..." 

"Well,' The Duchess went on, "What ever happened to Rei? Or Kasumi? She was such a nice girl. Or Ryoko and Nanami? Yashiko? She was so bright. Asuka? Miyaka? Akane? She wasn't the best cook I heard but she was sweet. Or Ritsuko? Umi-chan? That nice bar maid Ukyou? Eiko? Minako? Yumiko? Or what about Kokoko? Kagome was such an intelligent girl... Or Makoto? Hotaru? Sakura? Tomoyo? Akemi? Arashi? Kotori? Or what about that one girl... what was her name?"

Yamato blushed bright red and supplied her with the name, "Tomaiyonishitaruko."

The duchess grinned and continued, "Yes, she was very lovely, odd name however... what happened to her and the others, like Setsuna or Jun or Paruko or Yukemi or Reiko or..." Finally someone stopped her.

Yamato quietly spoke up, "Um... well, we kinda broke up after a while and I guess they're all doing okay..."

The duchess smiled sweetly, "Well, what about her, is she your new one? What's her name? How did you meet?"

"Well, you see..." he started.

"She's with me!" my Kou-chan spoke up rather loudly, dashing up to stand between me and Sir Yamato. 

The Duchess look a little taken aback. I, on the other hand, was quite happy with the declaration and subtly showed my appreciation. 

"Oh KOU-CHAN!!" I grabbed him up in a hug, "That's so sweet." If there was any doubt about whether Kou-chan was mine or not was completely obliterated at this point. The story could now continue in peace.

"Ano...Shouldn't we return to the matter at hand?"

We all turned to see who had spoken. It was The Duke. I still couldn't get over the sudden rush of brains he seemed to have acquired.

I turned to Yamato and my Kou-chan, "What's with him?" I whispered.

"Well," my Kou-chan replied, "I have a theory. Maybe the sight of his beloved Sora being returned to life has shaken him from a deeply rooted shock and that he wasn't all that bad to begin with..." My poor Kou-chan was cut short by piercing glares from Takeru and Yamato. "err... maybe it's something else..." 

"Umm... remember, you only have two chapters to get there," The Duchess informed us.

"Less," Yamato corrected.

"Alright," Duchess Takenouchi admitted, "LESS than two chapters to get there before it's too late to help the Queen. How on earth are you going to get there in time?"

My Kou-chan spoke up, "Ano... well... I COULD try a Teleportation spell... that would get us there in plenty of time to stop Joe."

Yamato and I stared at him, concerned, I spoke, "Are you up to a Teleportation spell with FOUR people across a five chapter trek?"

"Yeah," Yamato agreed, "I mean, one person is nothing. Two takes a bit more energy. But four across that distance would pretty much render you useless on the other side. And after what happened a few days ago..." Yamato let it hang.

I could see the distress that crept across my Kou-chan's worried face, I clutched his shoulder tightly, "Don't worry, we'll find some other way to get there quickly, I'm sure. I mean, what about on horseback?"

Takeru shook his head, "Same problem, we still won't be able to get there fast enough...How about flying?"

Yamato sighed, "That's like the Teleportation spell. Too much energy involved. Unless of course you have helicopter in your back pocket."

"Well actually, I do, I keep it there in case of emergency. But it's broken. That whole water thing shorted it out." The captain's younger brother explained.

"Which leaves us where we were," Duchess Sora sighed.

"Do you have any flying carpets handy?" my Kou-chan asked.

Duchess Sora replied, "No, they're all so old and moth-eaten, with the circuits rotted away, you'd fall right through them!"

"Well, there is one thing that you all have overlooked," came an unfamiliar voice.

We turned to see the Duke standing calmly and solemnly, sipping tea, with a very amused expression on his young face, "The river."

"The WHAT!?!?!" The two blondes screamed in unison, hiding behind one another.

Duke Kamiya ignored them and we were too shocked to stop him from continuing, "Yes, the river runs downstream to the Palace of my younger sister, if you find the right mount, you could easily overtake *ahem* _Joe's_ forces before they reach the castle. Thus, my sister would stand a fighting chance."

The Duchess smiled sweetly, "Oh, prefect idea, dear, but what kind of mount?"

Yamato and Takeru had since both turned pale white in color, including their hair and clothing...

The Duke flashed a smile, "Why the Seadras, of course!"

Takeru fainted.

Sora frowned, "Oh, the Seadras... yes, they're big enough to carry people, but they're much too slow to overtake Joe before the two chapters are up."

"Yeah," Yamato added enthusiastically, "She's right, listen to the woman, I mean, Her Grace!"

The Duke smiled mischievously, "Oh, don't worry, the Seadras will be quite expedient enough, you see, they're RACING SEADRAS!!!"

Yamato was suddenly encased in a block of ice, literally, and fell to the ground and crumbled into several pieces. He stood up and shouted, "NOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!! NOT THE RACING SEADRAS!!!!! I BEG YOU!"

I couldn't understand why Yamato was so against the idea. Even though the Duke had suggested it, I knew that Racing Seadras were incredibly fast animals that could be our best and only hope of getting to Queen Kari's Palace in time to stop the evil alchemist Joe. I noticed my Kou-chan nodding as he listened to the idea, apparently pleased with the idea. 

"I think it's a wonderful idea, dear," the Duchess complimented her husband, "Then it's settled?" she asked, "No objections?"

Yamato screamed.

The Duchess smiled, "Good, then let's get started."

Yamato turned to the authors and pleaded, "DON'T LET THEM DO THIS TO ME!?!?!? DO I *REALLY* DESERVE THIS!?!?"

The Duke ignored him and walked over to where I was watching Yamato plead to the powers that be, a. k. a. : the authors. Duke Kamiya gave me a stern glance, "The only problem with the Racing Seadras is that to summon them, we need a Songstress, and the last one we had tried to take over the Duchy, so we had to get rid of her..."

Takeru grinned, "I still say you should've paid her more, Yamato, she almost managed it."

Yamato was too busy trying to coerce the authors to reply, though.

"DON'T!! PLEASE!! NOT RACING SEADRAS! REMEMBER THE MOAT INCIDENT!?!?? NOOOOO!! OH MY GOD!!!!!"


	11. 34-36 A Brief Moment of Song&Dance: The...

Disclaimer: Not mine, no money, don't sue.

For further warnings, see part 1

Also: We do not own Grandia (excellent video game BTW, tons of cool plot!), nor do we own Slayers (Tho we blatantly abuse their character's names…), or Record of Lodoss War, Tolkien's stories, or Square's Final Fantasy Series (But we love creative and varied Fantasy stories and borrow bits and pieces…) A Midsummer Night's Dream or Fushigi Yuugi (Yet we're not above bastardizing their characters…) nor Ranma 1/2, The Neverending Story, (we try to be original sometimes), Haunted Junction, Saber Marionette J, Buffy The Vampire Slayer, Mercedes Lackey's Last Herald Mage Series, Broken Sky, and of course, Digimon Adventure, are all copyrighted to their respective owners! ^_~ We hope you owners enjoyed making your characters as much as we like parodying them! ^_~

Minor OOC/Bastardizing Warning: All the Digimon characters used in this fanfiction/parody received super-enhanced character flaws/attributes to emphasize their coolness/hilarity, such as Yama's anger times tenfold, Koushirou's arrogance/shyness is a bit more obvious, and Taichi's thick-headedness is thru the roof so we can add humor, so just have fun and try not to take the funny parts too seriously, ne? But you already knew that, right? ^_~

34. ^..^ QUEEN KARI 

"Oh my God…" The words were little more then a wispy sigh, fallen almost carelessly from my lips. There was a nervous shuffling, and I let my eyes flicker open once again, and with an inarticulate gesture, bade the messenger before me to speak.

"Q-queen Kari…T-the regiment at the Northeast corner is...is requesting…"

"Reinforcements?" I sighed again, my brow furrowing. Days, this had gone on, endlessly. What demon possessed that archaic alchemist, to drive his men without sleep, unfailingly towards the demise of my castle? The sheer weight of responsibility to the people…_my_ people… in this time of crisis alone seemed to bow my shoulders, but to also inspire and lead the poor soldiers who had to combat the invading force..? Fatigue had become a hard, steely knot in the pit of my stomach, weighing me down and dulling my thoughts. Was this how every ruler commanded their countrymen? "I've sent all that can be spared. I am so sorry. Have you weapons enough?"

The man before me seemed almost as disheartened as I. His jaw tightened a moment, protest to a weary sigh. He gave a curt shake of his head, mouth thinning to a grim line. "It's not weapons we're lacking, 'nor oil, but men. Not enough of us to watch their movements and stop them all at once."

I gave a brief nod and waved my hand, sinking back into the throne, warding off the lurking shadow of sleep. Sleep…Sleep and dreams. Dreams in turn would be invaded by nightmares, certainly…And the grim reality and suffering would forever be better than mysterious figures, scarring images, the icy stab of fear before-

"Highness!!"

I straitened, steeling myself, and allowed my gaze to again flicker up. More requests, more shortages, demands, pleas… Another armor-clad, out-of-breath soldier, thin and haggard, but with real fear pinching his face, widening his eyes. "Majesty, Corporal Amelia has reported a breach of the moat!! She's directing the troops from the balcony outside the armory, but we're having some troubles!"

It was obvious Joe didn't intend to back down. I ground my teeth, my mouth and throat suddenly dry, and pushed myself up from the throne, though it took an effort. Stepping forward, choking down nausea at the prospects and possibilities that grinned and leered maliciously at me from behind their demonic eyes of death and destruction and betrayal, I faced the nameless man that had brought the news of this failing.

"Take me to the Corporal," I told him in a stern voice and followed the man toward the battle's hotspot. Joe's troops seemed to be scaling the castle to get at our officers. There, I saw the wonderful Corporal Amelia herself in action.

"EEK! WATCH OUT! NO! NOT THAT! OH MY!" the girl screeched.

I sighed and bowed my head in frustration, "Hey… Why is there a CORPORAL in charge of my army?"

The man whom I followed to the battle lowered his head, "Well… you see, Your Majesty, she's the highest-ranking officer we have here…" he kind of shivered as he told me the news.

I shuddered, too, more in anger than anything else however, "WHAT!? How is this so?! Where are all our Lieutenants? And our Sergeants?!?!  WHERE'S THE CAPTAIN!?!?" I was slightly upset by the news.

The man shivered again, it must not be fun to be the messenger of bad news, "Umm… you see… Your Majesty has sent the Captain away on a mission to save the Duchess and he has yet to return. And as for Sergeant Miyako, she's away on holiday. But even worse, Lieutenant Daisuke was in the Duchy when the evil alchemist Joe began his hostile takeover."

I nodded calmly, "I see…"

"OH NO! NOT WITH A BLUNT SWORD!!!" Corporal Amelia shrieked from her post at my troops.

That was my breaking point, I turned to the messenger, "Tell everyone this, 'FROM HERE ON OUT, *I* WILL BE DIRECTING THIS BATTLE!"

To which he replied, "YES MA'AM!"

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

35. ^_^!! TAKERU

"YES MA'AM!" I called politely to Mimi-san. I had been appointed her attendant for the moment.

"Well, just be sure to hurry up, the concert must be perfect for my performance!" Mimi-san, the bardess, had really gotten quite into the idea of singing to summon the ::shudder:: racing Seadras. 

Racing Seadras just happen to be our mode of transportation to reach the Castle in time. They are extremely fast and will get us there in less than a chapter's time! Isn't that wonderful? However, racing Seadras are temperamental little buggers, and to summon one, much less control it, requires the aid of a Songstress. A Songstress, as I have been told, is someone who can sing so well, that they can weave magic into their voice with the aid of a spell. We figured Mimi could pull it off, so we scoured the castle in search of the spell's components. My brother and I also found Lieutenant Daisuke hiding in a broom closet from the recent battle.

As it turns out, the people of the duchy had often had to perform the ritual for summoning and controlling racing Seadras. So there was already a room and all the components all ready to be set up. Consequently, the components consisted of a stage, frilly decorations, a karaoke machine, and a disco ball. All of which were magically enchanted, of course. Oh, *of course*, I thought, after hearing Duchess Takenouchi's explanation. 

To add to my troubles, being Mimi's attendant meant setting up the stage area for the 'concert' that was to be held.

I muttered under my breath, "Whoever stuck me with this job is gonna get it…"

It took nearly an hour, but finally we, or rather, I, had the streamers, lanterns, cocktail entrées, and the like set in the appropriate places (according to Mimi-san's instruction. You'd be amazed how many times a woman can change her mind when you're carrying a table…) The Duke and his wife sat at a table near the stage sharing a margarita. Wizard Izumi, my brother and myself had settled into a table to the right of them. Little Pata rested on the table itself, and I stroked his batwing-like ears.

I sighed, fixing my blonde mop as I relaxed a bit after all my hard labor setting the place up, and leaned back to try and get comfortable in the chair. I supposed that was when the 'ritual' began, the light dimmed, the glittering ball lowered, splashing specks of color around the room, and disco music struck up from some unseen source. I didn't think too much of it, this place was odd to begin with. 

Not too long into the song, I realized that Mimi-san really did have a beautiful voice. It seemed to resonate throughout the room and penetrate your senses.

Needless to say, I was in awe. 

I looked to Koushirou-san and my brother, curious to see if they had a similar reaction. 

I wasn't surprised to see Wizard Izumi totally and completely enwrapped in Mimi-san's performance. He had his elbows propped up on the table holding his chin in his hands with an odd grin on his face. Koushirou-san very obviously had a thing for Mimi-san…

However I did a double take to see my brother doing the same. 

I started to ponder this turn of events but my train of thought was promptly derailed when the music came to a crescendo, suddenly dropped out, and Mimi-san whispered "I wish" into the unexpected silence. She finished with a little bow that ruffled her light bardess outfit and made her honey-colored hair cascade down her shoulders.

There was a loud applause, and I turned to see that everyone who was in the nearby town had heard the music and came for the free concert. I wished I had thought to charge for all the hard work that I put into this little pop music festival. However, I had little time to pursue that thought when the ground the building was perched upon decided to shake.

Rubble and concrete erupted into the air as, all around us, the duchy crumbled to dust. Masonry cracked and was torn asunder…

…As the racing Seadras leapt from what used to be the Duchy walls!?!? And gave Mimi-san a standing ovation. (if you could call it standing…)

 "Hey, Babe! Wanna go for a ride?!" The seadras called clapping and whistling at the baffled Bardess. 

At first Mimi-san seemed a bit appalled by their lewd behavior, but then she thought about it for a second and replied with a winning smile, "Of course, that's what we wanted, right?"

And then I fainted.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

36. ~_~ YAMATO

I was sick. Nauseated? Yes. Scared in the pit of my stomach? Also, yes. Flying through air and mist on the back of a high-speed water-beast of burden? Hell yes! But was that why I was sick? No.

Look at them, I thought bitterly. How can she be so CALM and HAPPY next to *him?* I mean, look at him, he's just some scrawny mage… Albeit, a very powerful and sardonic mage who wouldn't hesitate to rearrange the cosmos if it was called for, but a scrawny, no-talent mage none-the-less. At least, that's how it felt.

Koushirou Izumi, auburn-haired, kind of short, dark eyes, skinny, and loaded with ten fingers' worth of phenomenal cosmic power! He was being hugged tightly by the eye-catching bardess, Mimi, the object of my affection. This did not bode well with my ego. In fact, we were having some serious debate about this issue, and my ego and I decided there was only one thing to do: complain until we thought of something!

So we decided to complain about the one thing, other than Mimi, which stood out at me like a glaring pink penguin flying amongst the clouds of a bad acid trip: the racing seadras.

"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!~!!" I continued to scream in a panicked and shrill voice that somehow managed to sound cool because I was still trying to impress Mimi.

(A/N: Sure Yama, keep telling yourself that… ^_~ )

I clutched for dear life to the precariously thin reins, which encircled the sea dragon's neck and mouth. The mount bucked horribly as it bounced along like an overly-enthusiastic eel, snaking and porpoise-ing its way down the insanely choppy river. I hate water, I thought as the scenery around me went blazing past in a whirr of colors, mostly green, though speckled with houses and mills. At least, I THINK they were mills and houses, I was too sick with nausea and envy to make out the distorted world, especially from the back of the speedy sea-dragon. Mist sprayed my face and pale hair, and I shivered from the offensive substance. Water… it destroys me.

I think I fainted a few times… But never mind that, Takeru was unconscious the whole time, (it was the only way to coax him on the seadras, not that I was much better…) the Duke Kamiya was happily enjoying the ride, of course… And our happy couple were in front of me, so I couldn't make out their expressions, but I suspect they were doing something annoying cute and romantic… (like they have for the last couple chapters). I rolled my eyes (consciously, this time) at the thought.

Finally, and I mean FINALLY, FINALLY, we arrived in the general vicinity of Queen Kari's castle. I supposed that was good enough, considering the entire area was littered with battling soldiers, wounded soldiers, not-so-wounded soldiers, and well, arrows. 

I groaned, trying to rid myself of the green complexion I had acquired on our aquatic journey. The world soon stopped spinning, thankfully, and I *carefully* descended from the seadra (fell off unceremoniously) onto the shore. Where I proceeded to prepare for battle, a. k. a. puked my guts out.

Koushirou descended from his mount, followed by Mimi, who came over to release my brother from his mount. Little Pata fluttered over the blonde boy's groggy form, flapping some air on the poor kid's face. After finishing my "battle preparations," I turned to my friends and Duke Kamiya. "Well, so, here's where things get fun…"

"FUN? OOOH, will there be CLOWNS?!" Duke Kamiya asked with wide-eyes.

I shook with rage that I could barely contain, what could POSSIBLY drive a person to be so STUPID?! I tried to calm myself, he's just kidding, he's just kidding, he MUST be! He's royalty, no killing… NO KILLING! "Someone… keep me from strangling him," I muttered in a monotone voice.

Mimi placed a calming hand on my shoulder. I felt one last surge of anger (or something), then it subsided, I had more important things to worry about now besides Mimi… I mean, the Duke.

"Okay," I said, taking a deep breath and organizing my thoughts, "We need to find away around all the fighting and into the castle."

Mimi giggled to herself and stage-whispered to Koushirou, "Isn't it amazing how he can go from 'frightened screaming lunatic' to 'all business soldier boy' in a matter of heart beats?"

The auburn-haired wizard smiled but otherwise ignored the comment. "We must reach the Queen before Joe has the chance." He seemed to hesitate for a moment then said," I can teleport myself and maybe one other into the palace itself."

I quickly played out the possibilities in my mind. 

Option A: He takes me, I take control of the army, he saves Queen Kari, everything works out fine.

Option B: He takes Takeru, Takeru BRAVELY volunteers to save Queen Kari himself, Koushirou casts big-ass spell, everything turns out fine.

Option C: He takes Mimi, the two of them are alone in the castle, the two come up with some brilliant plan and are all cute and romantic afterwards, Mimi saves Queen Kari, I kill Koushirou, everything turns out *just* fine!

Option D: He takes The Duke; we all die painfully and go the hell in a gilded carriage with purple cushions.

After giving it some serious thought, I begrudgingly decided that it would be best if *I* went with Koushirou and voiced my opinion to him.

"I don't know," Mimi muttered, worrying a lock of her honey-colored hair with her mouth, she turned to Koushirou, "Are you up to taking two people that far?"

He flushed at the concern in her tone, almost the same shade as his hair, "I'm sure I'll be fine. I haven't done any heavy magic in days, I'm sure I can handle a simple transportation spell."

The Bardess looked doubtful, but relented in any case.

"Right. So Wizard Izumi and I will infiltrate the castle the easy way, hunt down the Queen and see if we can try and take hold of the situation. Takeru, I want you to find the escape route that leads out of the palace. Find it and get in that way. All right?" 

My brother smiled weakly at me in an attempt to show his 'eagerness' at his given assignment. He seemed very distracted and uneasy about something. Come to think of it. He hadn't uttered so much as a sigh since we landed on shore. His eyes had been completely fixated on his boots throughout the entire conversation. He shuffled nervously and refused to meet my gaze. Something was definitely wrong. Or he could just be jittery about the up and coming battle. 

I filed the information away for later and returned to the matter at hand. I could ponder the complexities of my younger brother later. Right now, I had a Kingdom to save. Walking over to my carriage, the Wizard Izumi himself, I placed a hand on his shoulder, "Let's go."

He took a deep breath, his auburn hair fell into his face, "I need you to concentrate on a location you are particularly familiar with. If I just teleport in there on my own, dragging someone along, it will most likely result in my being drained again, which won't do us any good now."

A room I'm familiar with? Hmmm. Well there's the courtiers' hall…

"Keep in mind that I had to have been there more than once myself," he reminded.

The kitchen it is. And I communicated this to him. He closed his eyes and I followed suit.

I began to picture the oversized kitchen with as much detail as I could. From the mason walls to the wooden washtubs piled high with soapy dishes. The stone floors neatly swept, bright sunlight pouring in to fill the massive chamber with a cheery glow. Whoever had designed the kitchen must have done his fair share of scullery duty. The counters, island tables, and cabinets were all set within easy reach for the ultimate convenience. The head cook never had anything to complain about when it came to the geography. Windows and lanterns along the wall ensured good lighting for working whether day or night.

Needless to say, I'd been there quite a few times in my youth with dishpan hands.

The sulfuric scent of mage magic wafted across my face. Even though I was expecting it, I still winced. It was so strong, it burned my sinuses and made my eyes water. I fanned myself trying to clear some of the air so I could breathe. It was useless of course, but after a moment, the stench weakened.

I blinked the tears from my eyes to find myself standing in a deserted kitchen with Wizard Izumi at my side. 

"I don't get it," I coughed, "How can you possibly travel like that? Any longer distance and I'd have suffocated."

"Much to my advantage, I don't have quite so potent a magic sense. I simply have a notion of its involvement. It doesn't assault my physical person." He stared pointedly at my raw red eyes and white hair.

"Lucky you," I muttered darkly, still hacking," And leave the hair out of this," I brushed the white locks out of my face, almost defensively.

He gave me an odd glance with those dark eyes of his, but before I could read it he turned away and strode towards the double doors exiting the kitchen. After glaring a hole into his cloaked back I straightened and followed suit.

"So, we're in," he stated when I caught up to him, "Now we have to go about finding the Queen."

"Well, you're the wizard here, can't you think of something?" I spat, anxious.

Koushirou eyed me, "I'm working on it, why don't YOU come up with a brilliant plan, Captain?" he retorted.

"The plan was that I'm supposed to take control of the army, it's YOUR job to save the Queen…" I glared daggers at him, "…so you might want to hurry it up," I turned from him and sped up my pace so that I walked ahead of him in the narrow passageway we were traveling in, the light of torches glinted off my sword.

Koushirou scoffed, "Isn't it a knight's duty to protect his Queen? What happened to chivalry, Sir Knight?" The wizard sounded genuinely angry now, as the familiar sardonic edge crept into his voice.

He was right, of course, I WAS supposed to protect my Queen, "But it's also a knight's duty to protect his Queen's castle and country, or did YOU forget that?" I snapped.

Koushirou stopped suddenly. Taken off guard, I halted and turned to look at him, "What is WRONG WITH YOU!?" he shouted in a mannerism that was unlike him. I hadn't really heard him raise his voice in anger before, except for maybe when the Duke did something stupid, but he just has that effect on everyone. 

That's when it hit me; I was having the same effect on Koushirou as the Duke has on anyone he comes in contact with. I shuddered at the thought of being even comparably close to as irritating as Kamiya was. I wanted to shout an apology, but instead, my anger got the better of me, "YOU REALLY WANNA KNOW, IZUMI?" I shouted, "_You_. You're my problem, YOU'RE what's 'wrong with me.'"

Koushirou looked taken aback, and I felt a smug pride from eliciting the reaction. Izumi's surprise didn't last long however. He shot back, "I'M YOUR PROBLEM?! Why? Is it because you're jealous that for once your 'wonderful appearance' didn't get you any special attention from a certain female member of our friends?" His snide tone told me he'd meant to sting me.

And it did. "I don't know what she sees in you ANYWAY!" I announced angrily, "Why would she want some short skinny little KID?!" I fumed.

"Maybe because it's better than dealing with an egocentric pretty-boy JACKASS?!" Koushirou hissed.

"I…!" I faltered and stopped. 

Koushirou gave me a piercing, disgusted black-eyed glare. Then I realized it, he was right. The perceptive little bastard was right. I was undeniably hip-deep in unadulterated, unchecked, bitter, green-eyed envy. I had NEVER had any trouble winning a lady's heart before. It was tearing me apart that Mimi wouldn't even pass a glance my way. It probably wasn't even the fact that it was Mimi, just the fact that ANY girl would be able to ignore me so…

I groaned and leaned against the stone wall with my face in my hands.  

My pride and ego had been getting the better of me. And (of course) it resulted in me making a complete fool of myself. I was acting like a spoiled child. I should be happy for Koushirou, not wishing he'd fall to an untimely bloody death. 

After a moment of berating myself, I looked up and met Koushirou's piercing gaze. He still looked like he would break out a can of magical whoop-ass on me. I sighed, then muttered, "I'm sorry."

For the third time in this heated debate, Koushirou was taken aback, "Wh-what?" His angry stare gone, a confused tone in his voice, "You're _sorry_?"

I tried to be indignant, "Yes, I'm sorry, I've been a jerk; a stupid, envious, quick-tempered jerk."

"You forgot thick-headed," the wizard added in a joking tone.

I rolled my eyes and crossed my arms, "Yes, yes, that too…" I strained a bit, "I hope you and Mimi are happy…"

Koushirou blushed (he does that a lot!). "U-uhh… Thanks" he muttered.

Snapping, I changed the subject, "Now, to save this place!"

"Affirmative," Koushirou agreed, adjusting his cloak into readiness, "Where do we start?"

"Well, I would say the armory would be a good place to search. If I know the Queen, and I do, I just know Her Majesty would take the front on something like this, she can't stand that Joe guy, either," I added.

"You're right, and knowing evil alchemist Joe, he would use that to his advantage and somehow manage to drug her or attack her from behind or cheat off of her test… errr, well, he always did that to me back when we were in Wizarding school," Koushirou commented sheepishly at the end.

I gave him a quick glance before turning, "To the armory?" I asked.

"To the armory," he confirmed, and the both of us raced down the torch-lit hallway.

Running at full speed, I dashed up the stair well to two floors above and passed several rooms filled with brightly-colored tapestries or refugees seeking shelter from the war inside the more-protected castle walls. I looked back to see if Koushirou was keeping pace, and surprisingly, the short guy was just a bit behind me. Turning into an empty soldiers' bunker, I raced through the room, keeping my sword from catching on anything, and through an open door at the other end of it. It led to the hall just a bit from the armory, where sounds of a battle could be heard. I slowed my pace as I exited the door and heard the flutter of Koushirou's cloak as he followed me. Nearing the armory's big double-doors, I could hear the fall and clash of swords, telling me the room was under attack. However, I also heard the high-pitched yells of Corporal Amelia Sailune, who seemed to be directing our army.

"Did all of our other officers just DIE?" I muttered, "Why's SHE in charge?"

"No time," Koushirou shouted suddenly, and threw out his arms and faced his palms towards the heavy double doors. I caught a whiff of the sulfuric smell of the mage arts, then, "GLAIVE WINDS!" A burst of strong, hurricane-force air currents erupted from his form and the doors flew open with a resounding 'THUD'."

I smirked, "Nice entrance," I commented and dashed into armory room, leaving Koushirou to catch his breath. The scene was total chaos, everywhere, soldiers from both armies slashed and stabbed at one another's chain mail-armored forms. There seemed to be more of our soldiers for the time being. But as my gaze wandered to the large balcony just beyond the opened gate that normally separated it from the armory, I saw more pronged hooks catching its ledge, with enemy soldiers pulling themselves onto the balcony one after another. Even with men scurrying up and down the balcony, cutting the ropes free of their hold, still, they came. 

"What could Joe be using to drive them to attack their own kingdom with such force? Is he using some weird alchemist concoction?" I said aloud to no one.

(A/N: Nope, good old-fashioned American dollars seem to do the trick just fine! ^_~)

That's about the time I spotted Corporal Amelia.

"YOU BIG MEANIE! YOU'LL NEVER HEAR THE END OF THIS!" She shouted out over the balcony at some soldier down on the ground where an even bigger battle took place.

Two or three soldiers from our side defended her back as she screamed useless orders at the ground troops.

"THIS IS _NOT_ JUSTICE!" she screeched and then took off one of her shoes and chucked it at someone down below.

I groaned…

"I *GOT* HIM!" She cried happily.

That's it, "CORPORAL AMELIA WIL TESLA SAILUNE!" I shouted in my deepest booming voice of command.

She 'eep'ed and stood straight at attention in reflex, her hand coming up to salute without any real reason. She turned to look at me, blinking in shock, "Captain!?" Then, more belatedly, "CAPTAIN! THANK THE GODS YOU'RE HERE! You see, I could use just a teensy bit of help, we're outnumbered, and um… well…"

I stared down at the massacre on the ground, "Just a little help, huh?" I said sarcastically, "Go back into the armory and fight something, if I need you, I'll call you, okay?"

She nodded and ran enthusiastically into the fray behind me, where I could only hope she died a brave and noble death. By the GODS, I hope! I trailed my eyes into the room for a glimpse of how Koushirou was fairing, but I could only barely make out an auburn-haired figure near the east corner of the weapon-strewn armory, and hoped that he and the Queen would be okay.

Turning back, I stood proudly at the balcony and flashed my sword quickly to the left, severing a rope that sent two enemy troops careening down the side of the castle into the moat. I spared a quick survey around the battlefield for my brother and the others. I hoped he wasn't having any troubles, but with the Duke around him, that didn't seem likely. I wondered why he seemed so distant when I asked him to search for the entrance into the castle. Then I wondered why he seemed so distant from me in general. I thought maybe it was because we had never been involved in such a big event as this, but we'd been through some uneasy situations before. However, unlike those times before, the blonde boy was starting to grow away from me, it felt. Takeru was growing up quickly, but that didn't explain my brother's reluctance to fight when I needed him. I could depend on him, though, I decided. Sighing, I brushed my still-white locks away from my eyes and mustered my determination.

Raising my sword, I took my position as captain and called to the troops, "ALRIGHT, I WOULD JUST LIKE TO INFORM ALL OF YOU, I'M BACK AND THE JOURNEY WENT WELL!" I boomed, "THAT ASIDE, LET'S GET THIS *STARTED!!!*"

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~


	12. 37-39 The Race to the Finish: When Butt...

Okay, we're still working on this, thanks so much for all your kind words, it has inspired us to continue writing this! The more reviews, the faster we'll get done! ^_^ Thanks for plugging us, too! (You know who you are). 

Warnings: Hi ^_^ I reside on chapter one, please visit me! ^_^

Disclaimer: Everything, if it's a fantasy story, we plugged it somewhere, oh, and more recently, Threads of Fate, Star Wars, Evangelion, Slayers, Shakespeare, and CLAMP. Anyway, none of it belongs to us. For we are po'.

Magic Chapter by Angel and Ucchan

37. ^_~ KOUSHIROU

The two of us materialized in the familiar kitchen. The white-haired captain took his hand off my shoulder and coughed into it. The taller man grumbled, "I don't get it. How can you possibly travel like that? Any longer distance and I'd have suffocated."

He had seemed rather disgruntled lately. From about the time we rescued Duchess Sora and on, he had been doing very little outside scowling and complaining. I hoped he would be more pleasant after all the stress of this battle was over though. I looked at his red eyes and whitened hair, "Much to my advantage, I don't have quite so potent a magic sense. I simply have a notion of its involvement. It doesn't assault my physical person," I explained.

"Lucky you,' he scowled, still hacking," And leave the hair out of this." He intoned defensively.

I didn't understand; I hadn't even said anything about his hair, what was he so anxious about? I shrugged it off and turned to the kitchen's exit. There was no one here, so I reasoned that we would have to scour the castle for the Queen. The dark hallway was lit with dimly burning torches, casting shadows here and there. I noticed Yamato's footsteps catching up behind me, "So, we're in," I stated, "Now we have to go about finding the Queen," hoping for some suggestions.

"Well, you're the wizard here, can't you think of something?" he replied sarcastically.

I shot him a glance over my shoulder, annoyed, "I'm working on it," I defended, "Why don't YOU come up with a brilliant plan, Captain?" 

His voice was taunting, "The plan was that I'm supposed to take control of the army," he paused, "it's YOUR job to save the Queen… so you MIGHT want to hurry it up," he sneered and pushed passed me in the narrow torch lit passage. 

He knocked into my shoulder along the way, and I was beginning to wonder if he was *really* on our side. At any rate, I was more agitated than before, "Isn't it a knight's duty to protect his Queen? What happened to chivalry, Sir Knight?" I retorted with sarcasm.

The white-haired captain narrowed his angry blue eyes, it made a striking contrast to the shadowed hallway, "But it's also a knight's duty to protect his Queen's castle and country, or did YOU forget that?" he snapped.

His insult was pointedly uncalled for, he was far out-of-line, and I needed to know here and now what his problem was. If he was going to be this anal-retentive, there was no way we could even hope to save the castle. I stopped, drawing his attention, my fists clenched, in a desperate struggle not to fry him with a fireball, "What is WRONG WITH YOU!?"

His angry gaze pierced into me, "YOU REALLY WANNA KNOW, IZUMI? _You_. You're my problem, YOU'RE what's 'wrong with me'!"

ME?! What? What did he mean? Thoughts raced through my head, he'd been upset about something since we rescued Sora. Was he upset that I was the one to cast the spell, that I stole his spotlight? No, he's the one who kept the Ogre away while Mimi and I worked it out. Well, then, maybe something Sora said? She mentioned girlfriends, maybe he's thinking about some bad break-up… 'Did people normally act like this when they go through a break-up?' I thought, not knowing much about relationships, I had only just started an official one with Mimi when Sora asked Yamato she was his girl. It dawned on me. Yes, Yamato was jealous, his green-tinted blue eyes showed that, but it wasn't because I stole his spotlight.

Insulted and angered by his arrogant jealousy, I shouted at him. "I'M YOUR PROBLEM?! Why?" I asked, then more snidely, "Is it because you're _jealous_ that, for once, your 'wonderful appearance' didn't get you any special attention from a certain female member of our friends?" 

The captain recoiled, hurt, I had obviously figured it out. He bit back, "I don't know what she sees in you ANYWAY!" he insulted me directly, "Why would she want some short skinny little KID?!" 

That made me livid. The whiny bigheaded captain had just about pulled the trigger that would set off a fiery rain of hell from my fingertips. Biting my mouth closed to keep from casting, I hissed, "Maybe because it's better than dealing with an egocentric pretty-boy JACKASS?!" 

He looked shocked, I didn't often curse; it was a pointless and unintelligent way of expressing anger. But at the moment, I was all but ready to chargrill his white-haired form. He lowered his face, releasing the searing glare between us. He stuttered out a piteous, "I…!" and stopped. 

I heard him groan and lean desperately against the corridor's wall, his face hidden in his gloved hands. I still followed him with my eyes, not sure if I could really trust him.

The once-blonde captain sighed and then muttered, "I'm sorry," under his breath.

"W-what?!" I spat without thinking, confused, "You're… sorry?" A wave of confusion washed over me and receded, sending my fury adrift, leaving me empty of emotion as I took in his words.

"Yes, I'm sorry," he apologized, rather grumpily, but sincerity painted his voice. "I've been a jerk; a stupid, envious, quick-tempered jerk."

I cleared my throat, "You forgot thick-headed." I jibed.

The taller man rolled his blue eyes and crossed his arms, "Yes, yes, that too…" he paused (for effect, maybe?), "I hope you and Mimi are happy…" he grunted mirthlessly.

I felt my cheeks crimson, I coughed, and cleared my throat again,  "U-uhh… Thanks."

There was an uncomfortable silence, then Yamato snapped to attention, "Now, to save this place!"

Thankful for the end of the uneasiness, I nodded, "Affirmative," I tugged my cloak closer to my body so as not to catch on anything, "Where do we start?" I inquired.

"Well, I would say the armory would be a good place to search," the blue-eyed knight began, "If I know the Queen… and I do… I just know Her Majesty would take the front on something like this," he added, "she can't stand that Joe guy, either." 

I nodded, it did seem like something Queen Kari would throw herself into, and I was sure Joe would be counting on something like that, "You're right," I acknowledged, then conveyed my thoughts to Yamato, "Knowing evil alchemist Joe, he would use that to his advantage and somehow manage to drug her or attack her from behind or cheat off of her test…" I realized I had begun rambling, "Errr, well, he always did that to me back when we were in Wizarding school…" I trailed off.

Yamato smiled, then suggested, "To the armory?" he asked.

I nodded, my best chance to find Queen Kari would be found in the midst of the action. "To the armory," I confirmed.

After that, we set off from the shadowed hallway, and Yamato blazed ahead while I kept pace behind. Yamato knew the castle better than I did. I spent most of my time holed up in my tower-room, working on spells or traveling about the kingdom's vast lands, but rarely did I socialize with the castle's occupants. So there was never a need to know the intricate twists and turns. I mentally berated myself for this now, realizing that this knowledge may have proven useful. Yamato turned sharply and I had to skid to keep from overshooting the doorway. My cloak fluttered out in a twist of cloth that resembled a rug being beaten then hung out to dry. He dashed through an empty room and out the other side to a wide hallway that I recognized as precursor to the armory. Yamato ceased his dash and now walked deliberately towards the double doors of the armory.

I could hear sounds coming from inside that I could tell Yamato was very intent upon, as he got closer to the doors. He muttered comments about the sounds, apparently he could make out what was going on, but I caught that there was definitely a battle going on behind those doors, and the Queen could be in trouble. Since I really didn't want end up under rule by evil alchemist Joe or worse, Duke Kamiya, I sincerely wished my Queen to live through this. Yamato lingered by the doors a bit longer.

But this was taking too long, not nearly efficient enough, so I decided to warm up my magic a bit. I mumbled a chant quickly, "…sylphen energies of the strongest winds…" Yamato looked back to see what I was doing, but I was too busy to bother with the silver-haired captain right at that time, I felt the pulse of the energy rising up within me, and I shot out my hands to focus the oncoming blast. After that, it was like everything moved in slow motion, the air around me began to whirl, my auburn hair whipped against my forehead, and my cloak strained to go flying skyward in the current, tugging against my neck. Then it all suddenly swirled into one point and orbited out from it, careening from my body and towards the double doors just as I shouted the final words of the chant: "GLAIVE WINDS!"

I was vaguely aware of the heavy doors bursting inward on themselves with a thunderous noise. My head was still a little fuzzy from the spell, but it cleared quickly.

Sir Yamato remarked, "Nice entrance," a smirk on his pretty-boy face. Then he dashed in, intent on his purpose.

After a second's rest, I took a deep breath and plunged into armory itself, desperate in my quest to find and rescue my Queen. The room was littered with weapons of every sort, knocked down, thrown about, or impaled on some unfortunate soldier. Those soldiers still standing (and there were plenty of them, as there are in every fantasy story) were fighting bitterly with each other about the armory's high ceilinged area. I kept near the busted open doors, which no one paid any heed to in their furious fighting. Brushing the hair out of my face, I scanned the room for Her Majesty.

To the left, fighting soldiers! To the right, more fighting soldiers! And straight ahead, Captain Yamato leading the –gasp– FIGHTING SOLDIERS! And yet, no Queen Kari to be seen. Well, obviously, if she's not here, she must have been driven elsewhere. I turned and trounced passed the fallen bodies in the doorway and headed further into the castle's winding armory rooms. I kept my eyes peeled and ears intent as I scoured through several mostly-empty rooms with nothing more than rows upon rows of weaponry. 

And that's about the time a random body came flying through my field of vision and cracked against the wall opposite the doorway from which it had been thrown. 

"Ah, I believe I've found her," I said wryly to no one in particular. I peered through the archway and was met with a rather humorous scene. Her Majesty stood in all her glory, with two blunt objects (which were unrecognizable by this point) one in each hand. Around her were about four not-so-eager assailants who were practically arguing over who would be the next to approach the empowered dusky-haired woman who was apparently displeased with her situation. As some might put it, she was 'mad as hell and she wasn't gonna take it anymore'! 

I finished musing over the idea, and quickly returned to my objective, to save my Queen from this fate. Taking a stance just to the side of the entryway, I steeled myself for a quick spell to take out the remaining guards. With Queen Kari safe, then we could concentrate more on the problem of Joe's surrogate army. 

I stifled a chuckle as my Queen beat down another of the armed guards. I needed to hurry with my spell however, as the soldiers looked as if they might be planning something – not to mention the Queen's 'weapons' weren't quite up to par any longer. 

I held my hands out in the direction of the plotting soldiers and focused on the earth-based spell as the familiar tingling began to flow from my toes to my fingertips. I forced the energy forward and mumbled the short incantation, "No time for incantation now, etc. etc.," and prayed for good fortune. The magic poured through my body and shot to the castle floor beneath the onrushing soldiers, a thin beam of light tore out from the stone and swiftly encircled the trio. The floor then erupted; teetering the assailant's equilibrium and sending them tumbling to the level below.

Queen Kari was a bit taken aback by her sudden lack of opponents, yet she lightened when she saw me rushing inward to greet her. The Queen smiled warmly, "Wizard Izumi," she spoke with her appeased royal voice.

I was infected with by her smile and greeted her in return, "My Queen," still moving forward to reach her.

Her Majesty's smile suddenly turned sour, "WHERE HAVE YOU BEEN!? Did it really take you SO long to turn a girl back from a statue?" 

  
I stopped in my tracks, a bit embarrassed, "Well, you see… It's a long story… REALLY…. About 92 pages by now…"

The Queen's glare softened, "You know, much of this could have been avoided had you returned sooner," The woman adjusted herself, as if preparing to go, "but right now, we have more important problems to amend."

I nodded, happy to be off the hook for the time being. I swept my cloak to side and reached for the Queen's hand to lead her onward.

And I caught Joe's deep blue eyes.

 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

38. -_-* TAICHI

I smiled merrily as we careened through the air on the back of a big turtle called a racing Seadra. It was like a roller coaster, with the up and down and up and down and UP and DOWN of the… you know, I'm suddenly not feeling so happy anymore… I wonder why that is…

But suddenly the countryside caught my eye… At least, I THINK it was the countryside, it was hard to see through my hair… Kari-chan keeps telling me I should cut it, but I say that having lots of hair builds character and keeps your brain from getting too much sun! She always sighs in defeat after I tell her this, I guess she just can't argue with my logic. 

Staring at the trees and fields, which lined the riverside, I noted that many of the trees were blooming. They must be gumdrop trees! I can never remember why they are called gumdrop trees, I've never seen any gumdrops on them. Maybe they should call them bubblegum trees. I wish I had a bubblegum tree right now… My stomach churned suddenly and I didn't feel much like eating anymore. 

Meanwhile, Captain Yamato was singing with joy, "AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!~!" He was a bit off-key, but he seemed very jovial about the exciting roller-coaster-like ride. His younger brother was peacefully resting. I guess he wasn't very excited, but I just don't understand how he could be so unexcited especially after the others bonked him on the head with a stick. I would have been upset myself. Unless it was a SOFT stick; soft sticks are nice. But it's so hard to find a soft stick nowadays.

I think Wizard Izumi was sick or something though. Maybe he was thinking about bubblegum trees, too. His face was very red, he might have a fever. I think the bardess was leaning so close to him to make sure he was okay. I guess since she was smiling so much he must be okay… or maybe she can't see how sick he looks, hmm…. I'll try to give him a checkup later. I'm royalty after all, I KNOW about these things.

The roller coaster ended about then, and we all got off the racing seadras… right in the middle of a GIGANTIC PARTY!! All these people in metal costumes were dancing and spinning around. Of course, just like at my diplomatic parties, everyone was yelling and through sharp bric-a-brac. I had to tilt my head to avoid being impaled by one of the darting objects. How improper… don't these partygoers know that throwing things might hurt someone? One of the rowdy guys went running by and I yelled to him, "HEY! DON'T GO RUNNING WITH SCISSORS!!"

I stood around and pretended to be busy while the others dismounted. I think it was believable because none of my dear friends thought to talk to me. I must have looked REALLY busy! The captain was looking a little tired, it must have been all that singing he did. He was hunched over the river, staring at it for a long time making funny noises. I think he might have been praying. It might have been some weird ritual that blondes do. Blondes are weird that way… kind of dim, too… but Sir Yamato's a good friend.

The knight stood up from his leaned over posture and addressed us all, "Well, so, here's where things get fun…"

"FUN?" I asked, I began to get excited again and so I stopped pretending to be busy, "OOOH, will there be CLOWNS?!" Clowns are my favorite, it can't be fun unless there are clowns!

Captain Yamato muttered something that I couldn't hear. Then he started talking very solemnly to us, but he wasn't being very interesting so I stopped paying attention. Instead I started to contemplate the time when my good friend Yamato and his brother saved from a horde of those awful, terrible, teeth-gnashing, bone-crunching, blood-sucking BUTTERFLIES. I shivered and scary music played through my head. Butterflies are evil, kids, don't play with them! Other things you shouldn't play with are large bodies of water that surround a castle. These bodies of water are called moats, because the person who invented them decided to call them something that would be REALLY hard to spell. That reminds of a time when I asked some young kids to help me fix a part of the moat at our duchy. Since I knew it would be a hard job, I decided it would be best to get it done with as soon as possible and as quickly as we could. It was unfortunate that it was hurricane season and that only a few of the soldiers volunteered to help us. Also, if I remember correctly, nobody instructed us as to how to empty the moat of the monsters. And then there was that gay soldier… Oh it's a silly story anyway. Maybe it'll make a good party joke sometime. I think I'll ask Sir Yamato about it.

I looked around and I suddenly noticed that Captain Yamato and Wizard Izumi were missing. I'll bet they went to an Elvis concert without me! I asked young Takeru about this and he just sighed. Apparently, he wasn't invited either. 

"So now what?" Lady Mimi asked, looking to the page-boy, an expectant look on her face.

The young page's gaze was distant and I remembered my mental note to have a chat with him about his sighing problem, before I could speak however, the squire answered the bardess, "Well, my brother said we have to get into castle to help him. There's no quick way to the top, but there's a good way for us to get around the fighting."

"What do you mean, TK?" I heard a voice and whirled around to see… the most gigantic butterfly I'd ever seen in my entire existence. I stood aghast.

"TK? Where'd you get that?" The page asked as I stood frozen.

Lady Mimi interjected, "He seems to like giving people cute nicknames… There's was this one girl I knew named Miyako, and he seemed quite taken with the idea of calling her 'Yolei'." 

Young Takeru blanched, "Yuck, what an awful nickname, how did you come up with THAT?"

The giant butterfly replied, "I get my inspiration from American television shows." This aberration smiled cutely, allowing me a glance at its horrid fangs of doom.

I finally managed to scream and point, "BUTTTERFLY!!!!~!" 

The bardess and the squire let out quick gasps as I shouted loudly enough for them to hear me (I made sure to get close to their ears). The two of them brought their hands up in terror of this fearful being.

"KILL IT QUICKLY!" I instructed so as to let them know the best course of action to follow when dealing with large butterflies. 

The taller girl and the young boy exchanged glances that I interpreted as cowardice since neither of them seemed to want to attack the foul beast. Lady Mimi spoke, "Maybe we should just let this butterfly go, your Grace, otherwise its brethren might come looking for it, and who KNOWS how big they'll be…"

The page-boy chuckled, then stiffened up. I pondered for a moment, and nodded reassuringly, "Yes, good plan, glad I thought of it, now, enough of your silly banter, young ones, let's get looking!"

Mimi turned to the young boy, "Do we even know what we're looking for yet?"

"Just let the good Duke look, I'm sure he'll find it…" Takeru showed his support for my cause. 

So I went about my task of looking, it was hard to concentrate sometimes on my very difficult task due to the fact that the evil vampire-butterfly was still hovering nearby, but I mustered my courage as I'm sure the others could clearly see.

"We will have to take the back entrance into the castle if we're going to be any help to the Queen." Young Takeru explained. It reminded me suddenly that my sister happens to be a Queen, I wonder if they know each other. The boy went on, "Yamato and I used to play in the entrance a lot when I was younger. Sometimes we'd play hide and seek, but my brother would always find me. I can't see the entrance very well anymore though, there's too much brush."

I looked over at them, "Yes, a brush would be nice," I stated firmly, a plan forming in my mind, "If we had brushes, we could all COMB OUR HAIR!" 

Lady Mimi smiled, "Great idea, your Grace, your mane could definitely use some grooming."

"Why thank you, good lady, but I'm married," I told her calmly. Don't get me wrong, she was lovely, but Sora-chan was the only one for me.

The girl smiled, it was obviously a heart-broken smile; it looked as if she was going to throw up. I had obviously hurt her, "Of course, your Grace."

I walked away from her, trying not to see her sad face, and traipsed through the brush. I could her the two of them talking behind me as I continued my quest to search for… whatever it was. I looked high and low, but it still seemed to elude me. Now if I was a hidden secret passageway, where would I be? If only I could remember what dad told me once…

It was then that I heard an odd metal clanking sound and suddenly the world fell out from under me and I was plummeting to my doom. THUD. Thud thud thump tump thump thud boom. Crash. Ouch. I had fallen down some stairs in the middle of the wooded area. What a stupid place to put stairs! I voiced my opinion with a loud royal whine.

I heard footsteps over my head and the sound of Lady Mimi and young Takeru's voices floated to me, "Oh by everything that holy and sacred in this world, he's found it…"

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

39. ^_^!! TAKERU

The Bardess Mimi and I hovered over the opening (previously covered by a iron grate. But thanks to our 'Brilliant Leader' the rusted obstacle had been cleared) to the castle's escape exit, a simple stairway carved into the floor of the ledge we had been searching. I gazed down into the dark gaping maw. The sun glared off of the age worn steps making the shadows of the passage deeper and even more foreboding.

"Lovely place." Mimi commented dryly. "And you and your brother used to play here?" She lifted a dainty eyebrow, questioning.

I ignored her inquiry, refusing to rise to the bait, and instead bowed deeply. "Ladies first."

She glanced nervously at the stairway. "Um… Let's forgo chivalry just this once. Okay?" 

After another moment or two of who wanted to go first, we both found ourselves at the bottom of the stairs in a painful undignified heap. 

"What took you?" the Duke asked as I helped the Bardess to her feet and I ignored him. After a moment my eyes adjusted to the pitch darkness and I scanned the room quickly. 

For Starters: It was Dark. Very dark. The kind of dark that even with the sunlight pouring through the entrance above was still just as unforgiving. 

But other than that, we where standing in the foyer of the aged passageway. The ground was still damp from the recent rains and puddles littered the floor. The sound of dripping water could be heard somewhere in the dark. An ornate archway graced the far wall of the tiny room. 

"Well, this is place is delightfully uber creepy."  Mimi snorted.

And with this happy note, we began to climb the steep damp steps of the 'secret passage'.

I had pictured this as being torture with the Duke. Not three minutes into the trek His Grace found joy in bouncing his annoying high pitched voice off the stone walls. I was SURE that people in the castle TOWERS could hear his caterwauling! Thankfully, Mimi threatened to sick Pata on him if he didn't can it. Suddenly recalling the 'butterfly's' presence the Duke thought it in his best interested to concede.  Thank God!

Unfortunately, left with only the impregnable darkness and silence. There was nothing to detract me from the reality of the present situation. 

My brother had given me a startlingly powerful task. I was the backup. It didn't sound like much at first, but I was in charge of the lives of not only those with me, but also the Queen and anyone else who would need help. My brother trusted me with this assignment, and I was grateful for his confidence, but I wasn't sure I could handle this responsibility. And if I didn't live up to these expectations, some one would die. Maybe the queen, or worse, my brother himself. If I failed my brother, he could lose his life, and if that happened… I broke away from that line of thought before I could finish. 

I was going to battle! A real battle not the petty squabbles and skirmishes that pass for fight scenes for the first half of this damnable story!

We where about to run head first into a fort full of blood-thirsty hired hands armed with a Bardess, an Idiot and a flying mythic bat-pig. I tried to look at the bright side… Well, maybe we can call them an enchanting Songstress, a Royal Noble, and Magical Creature of Ancient Lore. I sighed, still no use… Unless the Bardess wants to beat someone senseless with her lute or the Noble could talk some one to death. The Magical Creature of Ancient Lore however…is still useless… maybe it could masquerade as a vampiric butterfly…That would scare…the Duke. 

We're screwed… 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~


	13. 40 The Final Wizards' Dual: With the Fli...

MAGIC CHAPTER: a digimon parody… in a fantasy world… oh brother… 

By Angel, Ucchan, & Tora

Warnings/Disclaimer: If you've made it this far, you should know by now…

40. ^_~ KOUSHIROU

The azure-haired alchemist clipped my arm as I stood shocked from his sudden appearance. I felt the warm blood from the miniscule cut dribble slowly down my arm, and I recoiled, pushing the queen as far away as my unhurt arm could force.

I cried out instinctively, baring my teeth as I stared hard into Joe's unfeeling eyes. The backstabbing rogue had sliced me with a short dagger as I had been turned.

The alchemist smirked, "It seems I missed… I had meant to cripple it permanently." He said this calmly, but a wild gaze was flickering across his eyes.

"DIAMOND SHIELD!" I shouted, a magical echo rang a clear tone as I lanced out an open palm with my good arm. A quick spiral of clear light entwined about my arm and wound forward with increasing swiftness. The light was imperceptible except as it flashed white at certain angles. As it reached its twining apex at the center of my palm, it broke apart, and the whole room glinted as if a large pane of glass had been installed through the center of the stone-walled space. 

Joe rapped his fist against the magical force lightly, as if knocking at a friend's door, "Oh, Izumi-san!" he called with a crazed kind of cheerfulness, "Your little invisible force field is a cheap trick, you KNOW it won't hold up against anything more powerful than a short-range arrow." The alchemist sneered.

I cursed, and quickly ripped a small piece of cloth from my cape and tied it as tight as I could around the bleeding cut in my upper arm. At least the Queen was behind my magic wall… not that it would be helpful for long.

The regal woman straightened herself from the awkward position into which she had been tossed. "It's YOU!" Her majesty growled in recognition of the alchemist, "You're the cause of all this madness, why are you doing this?"

From the other side of the magical barrier, Joe replied, "It's every evil genius' dream to rule a kingdom, the world, etc… Isn't that reason enough?" his joking manner was beginning to be annoying, "Besides, I have to make the wizard here's life a living hell…" His deep blue eyes penetrated into my own scowling black ones.

The Queen blinked in confusion and turned to me for confirmation, "Wizard Izumi, what exactly is this raving lunatic spouting? He knows you?"

I sighed. "Yes, Your Majesty. In fact he does. We attended classes at Unseen University together under Master Wizard Mon."

"And He was the Bane of my Existence!", Joe screamed in accusation. I could hear the capitalization.

"I'm afraid I don't understand."

"You ruined my LIFE with all of your 'Natural Magic Talent'!" he said that last with obvious disdain. "You were ALWAYS the top of the class and the Master gave you ALL of the praise and attention! No matter how good I did you were constantly a step ahead of me ready to steal MY spot light! You toped my in every thing I ever thought I excelled in: Spell Casting, Grounding, Inhibiting, Embellishing, Improvisation! You even had Magic theory and History down! No mater what I was second best"

"But," he began to laugh maniacally under his breath," but there was one thing that you could never excel in. You could never figure out the complex instructions in alchemy equations and ingredients!"

"But he doubles as My Wizard AND Alchemist!', the Queen yelled, leaping to my defense. "He has never failed to plunk out the appropriate potion in the amount of time needed!"

Joe smiled knowingly, "But only after having asked at least 5 people for help."

"That's because the instructions are all encoded in riddles and double talk." I stated, suddenly embarrassed.

"Even so, the final straw came when you broke the heart of the only girl I could ever love!"

"Huh?" was my witty come back.

"It was the Ball organized for the celebration of pointy hats and star-studded dresses and My Love (in a moment of blind insanity) asked YOU to attend with her!"

"Oh!" I exclaimed, "Yes. I remember that. I told her I was helping Wizard Mon with lesson preparations that night." Well it was true.

"It was because of that CRUEL denial that My Love was doomed to wed the Idiot that she is with this day!" the alchemist exclaimed.

I waved it off, "I'm pretty sure Sora's pretty happy with Taichi somehow… if you really loved her, you'd be happy for her…"

"You're talking about Duchess Sora?!" The queen cried in a moment of shock. Then, "Sora went to Unseen University? I didn't know she dealt with magic."

"She has a natural talent for charms." Joe replied. "Nothing flashy but very useful. Why do you think the Duke has such a dramatic surge of intellect when he is in her presence."

The Queen blinked, "Well, yes, now that you mention it, it DID seem strange…"

Joe pressed his hand against the magical glass, lip curling in a low snarl, "But now… NOW… I will have what I have worked so hard for…" 

I furrowed my brow in anticipation as the alchemist brought back his hand and thrust it crashing through the glass. The sharp jagged sound of magic tearing reverberated as the spell shattered in a cracked arc around his hand, splintering to fall in pale, broken imitation of that sound to the castle floor. I didn't blink before the spell fizzled away, leaving nothing, no barrier, no protection, between me, the Queen, and this madman. 

Joe reached into his cloak in a fluid, recoiling motion, and drew his hand back, whipping to dash a bottle to the ground in front of my feet. A cloud of sickly green smoke billowed up and into my face at an alarming rate, sending a lancet of sharp pain to my eyes. I slammed them shut for a moment and backpedaled. If the cloying fumes didn't clue me off first, my barely stiffening muscles were a frightening declaration. I recognized the familiar potion of paralyzing gas.

"BREZZA PETALO!!" I shouted, my voice tight with desperation, and with a quick sweep of my hand, a wave of motion rippled through the air, and descended on the choking stuff, widening to dissipate it. I ground my teeth in frustration, and the alchemist leered at me, shaking his head as if mocking the display.

Her majesty coughed and backed away from the slowly vanishing tendrils of mist. "My queen, it's a paralysis potion, don't breathe it in!" I warned.

Joe stood, and chuckled, smile thinning to bear the tips of his teeth in a feral, subtle smile. "Nice trick, but what can you do if your hands are bound?" 

I felt a vial shatter across my chest before I could identify the motion or even hope to react, the shards spinning down and away…But something clung to me still, and my throat tightened. "Aah!" I yelped and jerked back, snaking vines thrusting to twine tightly around my chest and constrict, branching off to snap and coil around my arms, dragging them to pin at my sides.

Queen Kari ran to my side and tugged on the vines, fingers squirming to wriggle beneath their tight snare. "They won't budge!" she looked to me frantically, "Do you have any sharp objects in that pouch or is it just for show?"

The alchemist laughed, too loudly for anyone sane, and pulled his hand from his cloak again, fingers curled around the necks of yet more vials. 

Queen Kari's chocolate eyes narrowed in anger… However, recognizing some of the potions, my own eyes widened, terror-stricken.

Joe threw down a smokescreen vial, with the now-familiar sound of glass shattering. More smoke rose, and I choked on it as it forced down into my lungs, and thrashed, trying to force away from the clogging stuff. My pulse quickened at the sound of the Queen hacking nearby, and my frantic motions quickened with fear. 

I suddenly felt a hand clutch around my bound arm. I stiffened with fear, and tried to jerk away, yelping a protest. I squirmed again, but the clutch only tightened, and the form dragged me closer.

I heard Joe's maniacal laughter echo again throughout the room, imprinting itself in the fibers of my memory. I felt a rush of air as the Queen was being ushered away from me, and tried desperately to move my fingertips and mutter a spell in futile hopes that SOMETHING would happen.

A hand clamped over my mouth sealing my breath away to my lungs. I writhed against my captor, and then stiffened as I heard a low, breathy voice whisper into my ear.

"You know, Kou-chan, this is really sexy and all, but…"

"Mimi!!!!!" I yelled into the palm, though I'm quite sure the exclamation was incomprehensible - more like Mpphhhmm!!

In the light of this new information, I allowed myself to be drug from the room. I continued to listen to Joe's insane rantings and ravings as he continued to insult people that were no longer within his clutches - and barely within earshot. I found it VERY amusing.

Outside the room, I could clearly see our saviors. And Taichi. Who were all wearing…night vision goggles…??

"Where did you get those…?!?" I queried, perplexed.

"We borrowed them from Taichi…" Takeru indicated the Duke's head. His mane, specifically. 

"They're the ROYAL night vision goggles, of course," he continued with disdain, "And they would have been VERY helpful, and more USEFUL in the dark, scary forest…!!" Takeru intoned to the Duke.

"Weren't you LISTENING!? I SAID I was going to TAKE over YOUR kingdom!!" Joe raged, stomping out of the still smoke-clogged room.

I struggled in my binds and as I watched the squire stride forward, sword drawn, point leveled unerringly at Joe's chest. 

"Makenai de." The boy challenged the alchemist with his proclamation to never give up.

The alchemist rolled his eyes and reached again into his cloak, and drew his hand out to reveal a small clay vessel - held between thumb and forefinger. Takeru's eyes widened, and he lunged forward - too late.

The alchemist crushed the small vessel between his fingers, and a whirl of glittering, malicious shards of light poured forth, congealing and amassing into several dagger-like points, which hardened into glossy blades of ice.

They hovered for a moment, a small fleet of razors, and I stared in horror as the squire tried to jerk back, throw himself out of the way. To no avail, and the dagger-like sickles shivered, as if casting of their eerie stillness a little at a time, and dove for him, arrow-straight in flight.

He didn't scream, not even as red blossoms bloomed and bled through his tunic, slowly tainting the fabric. There were numerous, dull thuds as the bloody shards embedded themselves into the far wall, followed by a larger one as Takeru fell back, a few flecks of brilliant crimson splattered on his too-pallid cheeks.

I choked back a sharp sound of despair and looked on in horrified disbelief.

The Queen let out a small gasp, her light voice cracking. She knelt at the boy's side, sparingly examining his abrasions.

Mimi-chan's reaction wasn't quite so peaceful, and with one fluid movement, I watched as Joe's head was abruptly tilted by the force of Mimi's slap. The resounding crack that filled the air left only silence in its wake and the bardess glowered at the would-be tyrant.

"You BASTARD!!~!" The caramel-haired woman yelled, summing up her feelings with but two words.

Joe responded in kind, recovering quickly from his shock and delivering a backhand to Mimi's temple, "SILENCE, WENCH!"

The girl recoiled from the blow, her body twisting and falling to the stone floor in a splayed heap, apparently unconscious… or worse. My mind reeled. "MIMI-CHAN!"

"MIMI-CHAN!" Pata echoed, concern lacing his young voice.

I quickly observed our rapidly-increasing-towards-death situation. With myself bound, Takeru and Mimi were unconscious with the Queen tending to the young squire. I realized the only one still standing was Taichi.

I must amend, this means certain death…

"YOU BLASPHEMOUS CUR!" I heard the Duke yelled with ferocity such words as I had never heard him say (or that I thought he even knew) before. 

Joe's eyes alighted upon the regal figure with disdain, "What now?"

I watched, wholly surprised, as Duke Kamiya approached the azure-haired alchemist, "I can't believe that even you would sink so low as to strike a lady…" the man's voice was much lower and more stable than his normal pitch, "I cannot forgive you."

I was impressed by the sudden change in Duke Kamiya, he'd never shown any kind of anger that I could remember. I ALMOST had hope that we would survive this encounter.

The alchemist absorbed all of that in silence, and cocked a brow, obviously unamused. "You're a fool. I can't believe you would subject my dearest Sora to your idiocy."

With that, he reached forward and clutched at the Duke's collar, and pressed forward, jarring him up against the nearest wall with a low growl. His second hand clasped a thin dagger, and jerked forward, shoving it with a brutal twist into Taichi's stomach.

The Duke gasped and crumpled, a hand moving brokenly to clutch at the wound, while his other clawed at Joe's shoulder as he struggled to remain upright. Joe sneered and shoved him back against the wall again, and stepped back to watch him sink to the hallway floor.

I was too shocked to react fully. He had just…killed the Duke?

Queen Kari shrieked, reached over Takeru's limp, pale and broken form to snatch his sword, and righted herself, and rushed forward, her intent easily seen as the alchemist's demise.

"What the HELL is going on here?" Yamato's voice echoed down the corridor, and relief washed over me. Also, slight embarrassment at our current situation. Yamato approached, "Geez… I can't leave you guys alone for ONE MINUTE!"

I smiled sheepishly, "Hi Yama…" I couldn't wave as my arms were still tightly bound by the vines.

The knight observed the scene, "You're kidding… the QUEEN is the only one still standing?"

I nodded, adding, "At least she's standing!"

Which wasn't for long, for at the sound of Yamato's sudden appearance, Her Majesty performed a classic anime facevault, and fell to the ground. Effectively leaving Yamato the only one now standing. I muttered, "With our luck, we're ALL dead…"

Who would have thought the blue-haired idiot would be such a formidable opponent?

Pata fluttered with enthusiasm, "GET THAT BASTARD, YAMATO!"

The Knight turned his attention away from me to survey the room when his eyes alighted on his wounded brother. "Takeru!" he gasped, biting back his anger, lurching forward as his fingers loosened from his blade, the weapon hanging limp in his hand.

Snarling, Joe leapt forward, attempting to knock the blade from his hand, bloodstained dagger firmly clutched in his hands.

Yamato bristled and tightened his hold on the weapon, but letting it sweep to the side with the force of Joe's attack, then brushing back again in a full arc.

Joe hissed a curse and slammed his dagger into the sword's hilt, then wrenched away with the scream of metal dragging on metal, and stood pensive, guarding, his other hand darting to fish inside his cloak for another vial.

I called a warning - too late, my mind cried, as a nameless bottle was hurled at Yamato. He removed a hand from his sword, and backhanded the thing away from him - back to shatter at Joe's feet.

I watched in stricken awe as the alchemist's feet were rooted to the spot, color slowly bleeding away as he thrashed, clawed at the spell. As it laced further, I could identify it as a purification spell. It reached up to his thighs, and it was already clear that his feet - now looking stone-hewn - weren't going to be of much use anymore. He wailed, then glowered at us.

Yamato laughed, and shook his head, grinning, "NOW who's going to be the permanent pigeon perch…?"

The alchemist scrambled through his cloak, looking for an antidote...or something to throw.

"Grab him..!" I yelped at Yamato, who was still chortling.

He blinked and complied, darting over to snag Joe's arms and hold them back.

"You aren't rid of me YET…" he threatened.

I felt a blade against my back as Her Majesty cut me free of the ensnaring vines. As she stepped back, I shook them off and scrambled to my feet.

I approached Joe, and gestured quickly, "Silence!!" my voice echoed, stilling that of the alchemist with the spell. 

That done, I rushed to Mimi's side, brow creasing with worry. I bit my lower lip and straightened her limp form, fingertips brushing over her lips. Yes…she was breathing…I knew there were more imperative injuries to tend, but…

I looked over to Yamato, who still restrained the alchemist. He gave a curt nod to Takeru's direction, and I immediately moved to see to him.

He was in awful condition - blood pooled around him, and trickled slowly out of the corner of his mouth. But he was breathing, if only just barely. I placed my hand over his eyes and concentrated, a blue glow emanating from my palm. It swept slowly over his features as I recited the spell slowly. "Curaga…" I cooed, voice softened.

The glow intensified, and washed over his form, and before long, I had to shut my eyes against it, turn away - as it faded I looked back, to see Takeru whole and healed, though blood still pooled around him, stained his clothes and face. I heaved a sigh of relief. 

After a scant moment I noticed him shift and his eyes fluttered open, dazed. He blinked slowly, tried to look around. Shaking his head, he propped himself on an elbow, and peered around. Catching sight of our injured friends, he tensed with worry. The Squire blinked, as if trying to hold back tears of shame. "I-I sorry...Yamato. I f-failed to protect the Queen and..."

"Takeru," Yamato stated firmly.

"Hai?" Takeru looked up to find his brother beaming at him from Joe.

"I'm proud of you. You did very well."

"H-Hai, Nii-san"

I turned to our last injured part member - the Duke. It was then that it dawned on me, the Duke was dieing...! Was this a bad thing…? 

The Queen was kneeling in pool of Taichi's blood on the dusty floor with her brothers head cradled in her lap. Her once majestic robes where torn and blood stained, the crimson slowly bleeding up the fabric.

She sobbed brokenly, breath catching in her throat, and shuddered faintly, tentative to touch or move his wrecked form anymore. Tears ran down her cheeks in a ceaseless flow, face hidden by obstinate streamers of hair that fell out of place. A tear fell from her chin to slide off the Duke's upturned, deathly pale face. 

I worried my lower lip, appalled that I had ever considered letting the Duke's life slide between my fingers, when I had the power to stop it. Letting him die would be worse than Joe stabbing him in the first place.

He had even risked his life to defend us - and in all sincerity! Despite being a complete dolt and idiot, he really was a good person. And he IS genuinely in love with Sora. It was perhaps one of the most touching displays I'd seen... Sure, he's irritating, but I guess... well... he IS my friend, right?

I stepped over and made a vague gesture for her to move aside - wordlessly, she rubbed the back of her hand across her eyes and sniffed, clearing space and moving away. I slid to my knees to lean over the Duke, centering my open palm over his chest. I murmured the incantation lowly, almost breathlessly, as pale blue sparks lit from air itself, wandering almost aimlessly over the Duke's inert form. I let my eyes fall closed as I concentrated, but I could see the image the lights wove even through my eyelids - faster and faster, until everything snapped into a universal rightness, and I let my eyes fall open again as the lights fell to form a rune-inscribed circle, Taichi's wounds sealing themselves up, wounds once mortal vanishing as I breathed the last words and felt the power ebb. "Saint Litany."

I quavered. This magic strain....I shook my head. I straightened, and shuffled over to Mimi....The world seemed to spin a little faster than was usual. And everything was moving strangely...I closed my eyes and tried to shake my head again to clear it. They didn't open again, and I remember feeling the world tilt up from underneath me...I felt the castle floor beneath my cheek, and consciousness was lost to me.

For the second time in my life I awoke to the face of a gorgeous angel...

And this time it actually was...I fought off a blush desperately as a rush of pain shot through my skull. Mimi hovered over my bed side with a basin of water in her lap and a damp cloth in hand. 

"Morning, Kou-chan..." she whispered sweetly, dabbing my forehead with the said cloth.

"Mimi-chan..!" I stuttered with concern, "How are your injuries?" For some reason the sound of my own voice sent lances of pain through my head. I winced, and nibbled my lower lip pensively.

"Easy now, dear… I'll live." Mimi soothed. Blessedly, she kept her voice low and quiet. Wryly, I thought over the irking fact that I wasn't exactly able to revel in the moment..."You've had a relapse of Backlash. It's not as bad, but you've been unconscious for about two days now." 

Two days! I sighed then opened my mouth to ask a question but she beat me to it. 

"Everyone is okay. The Queen is working on the getting the castle restored and clearing out all of the carnage. Last I saw she was throwing a fit about blood stains on the foyer carpet..." she rolled her eyes.

I might have laughed but it would have hurt.

There was a light tapping on the door to my quarters and the door opened to reveal the aforementioned royalty. 

"Oh! Your Majesty. How nice, we were just talking about you." Mimi smiled in greeting and stood to give a graceful curtsy. 

The Queen waved off the etiquette with a smile. "Please. I'm not here on a diplomatic mission. Just out of concern for a friend. You can call me Hikari."

If Mimi-chan was shocked or flattered any, she didn't show it. Her smile warmed and she simply said, "Okay, Hikari."

"Is he awake?"

"H-Hai." I croaked just loud enough for her to hear me without aggravating the mallet-wielding-trolls behind my eyelids.

"How are you feeling?" she queried sitting on the edge of the bed, concern written over her delicate features.

"I've felt better...And yourself...? How's the Duke, and..." I winced again, and leaned back.

"We're all fine..." Her smile softened at my wince, and she shook her head. "You, on the other hand, need more rest. After Joe's loss, the troops lost their order, and we won pretty easily. The bribed soldiers are going to be put on trial for treason, and the bespelled troops were sent home for recuperation. Oh, by the way, just after the battle was over, our BRAVE officers returned from vacation in the Bahamas… Takeru has recovered quickly, and Taichi… well, I-" She was interrupted by the sound of a crash, and the unmistakable sound of the Duke. 

"...err...As I was going to say, I'll let you get some more rest...I think I need to save my castle from my brother..." She flashed another smile, this one a little strained and hurried, and slid back out of the room.

Mimi sat back down in the chair next to my bed and replaced the basin in her lap. With that, a thought occurred to me: now with the quest over with, Mimi had no reason to stay. We didn't need Pata for anything, nor the help of Mimi's worldly expertise. Would she just leave to continue her interrupted career as a wandering bardess? 

My worry must have shown on my face for Mimi stopped what she was doing to peer at me. "Kou-chan...what's wrong? Other than the obvious," she indicated my physical condition.

"Now that this little adventure is over," I asked tentatively "...what are you going to do?"

To my surprise, Mimi-chan leaned down and kissed me gently. I was so taken aback I didn't respond. Instead I felt my face grow hot and my heart skip a beat.

She pulled back slightly and gazed knowing into my eyes, "Are you scared I might go gallivanting about the country side and leave you here in the big tower all by yourself?"

"Well," I said honestly," The thought had crossed my mind..."

She grinned and kissed me again. You know, I could get used to that.

"Don't worry Kou-chan. I'm not going anywhere. I all ready asked the Queen if I could stay in her castle. She said that she thought you could use a little company. Besides," she continued with a teasing smile," I belong to you don't I? You DID win that auction, after all." She mock-sighed, "I guess I'll just have to stay here with you…" For a moment a bit of uncertainty flashed a crossed her face, "Unless you don't…"

"No!" I interjected hastily, "I mean…I think I could use…the company that is."

I don't think I've ever seen a woman look quite that happy before. Her cheeks became rosy and her eyes shimmered with the barely perceptible wetness of tears. A thin film that didn't quite threaten to spill down those same flushed cheeks. Quickly, but with a near air of tentativity I had never witnessed in her before, she took my hand between hers, and laced her slender fingers around mine.

She was about to say something further when the door burst open and in poured two blondes. Mimi-chan clutched my hand tighter for a brief moment as her gaze swiveled sharply to level on the intruders. Yamato and Takeru looked a little worse for wear. Both were leaning heavily on their knees and panting in a panic. The flying mythic creature, Pata, hovered just above the younger boy's blonde mop.

Mimi leapt to her feet, disentangling our fingers a bit reluctantly, "Guys, what's wrong?!"

"The Queen…" Yamato breathed between gasps, "she's…" 

Oh God, what now..!? I'm not in the condition for another crisis! I can't even open my eyes for long let alone put up with another badly written adventure!!!

"…blown her *beep*ing top!" Takeru finished followed quickly by the 'Watch-your-damn-mouth' look from his older brother. 

I was just as confused as Mimi looked. This could not be good.

"Well…?" she cued.

"She just got an astronomical bill from some auction place." 

My stomach fell through the bottom of the bed. It felt as though some of those man-eating butterflies the Duke was always talking about had nested in my innards. 

It's official. 

I was going to die. 

Through my shock I could hear Mimi fidget nervously. "Well…that is definitely bad…"

"No Kidding. She vowed to kill all parties involved or worse…." the younger brother sighed.

"I just hope none of us are reamed for it." Yamato put in. " I remember LAST time we got in trouble…" 

"Don't remind me…"

The siblings shuddered, "But who could've racked up such a bill?" Sir Yamato puzzled.

Pata's eyes lit up, "Hey, Mimi-chan! Didn't Koushirou spend a whole buncha money to free you from the slavers?" the creature paused, "Yeah! And it was at an auction too!"

Mimi-chan's eyes went a little wide at Pata's 'revelation,' and she shot him a glare to silence the bat-pig. But the damage was already done.

The brothers' voices raised in unison, "YOU'RE THE ONES WHO RACKED UP THE BILL?!"

"Well," Yamato sighed, defeated, "We're dead, the Queen's just gonna kill us… that's all there is to it… 'All parties involved,' remember?"

"Oh no, does this mean the Queen's going to give me smackings and whackings on my poor tender head?" Pata asked.

"Not if I get to you first," Mimi-chan threatened under her breath in an uncharacteristic amount of hostility toward the creature.

It was then that the door burst open with an exuberant cheer, "HULLO HULLO!" Duke Kamiya greeted, "I've just been informed by my dearest sister that all of you have been given a mandatory invitation to visit my Duchy as part of some 'payment' or 'punishment' or something! So PACK UP! We're all going to be together again for nice long vacation!"

The looks of sheer shock on the brothers' faces probably matched my own, but I couldn't see my face, so I'll just describe these next events as seen on Takeru's and Yamato's visages. 

The Duke continued, "Oh, speaking of vacations, I've been meaning to ask you, Yamato, I had remembered about this incident involving our moat, sea monsters, two young blondes, and a gay soldier… I was wondering if you knew anything about it…"

Sir Yamato looked to be on the verge of screaming.

"Oh, and while we're visiting, maybe you can all help me with this problem I have with the dam…"

Takeru screamed. Yamato fainted.

THE END

THE *BIG* AUTHOR'S NOTE:

I remember when we first began to plan this story, it was meant to be a quick one-sitting, one-two chapter one-shot fic where the Digi-tachi would don the robbing of medieval times and gallivant across the hills happily. Yeah, right… That was about two summers, 105 pages (we're such losers), and 40 chapters ago… It's been great fun writing in all the characters, and emphasizing some of their more fun traits: Yamato's anger, Koushirou's arrogance, Joe's lack of touch with reality, Mimi's assertiveness, and of course: Taichi's thick-headedness and density. I guess this makes them TECHNICALLY out of character, but I don't see it that way… we just ENHANCED their personalities… really! ^_~ ::wink wink nudge nudge:: We tried to devise a plot so the fic wouldn't be pointless; but then the plot kept getting more and more advanced, and more twists and side-notes were added, effectively prolonging each and every chapter. We tried to keep some parts serious, as there was some pretty intense parts (especially were Yamato almost gets killed by a possessed demon-tree – think MEGACherrymon, only scarier…). However, we never wanted to lose the humor that comes with a fantasy story, not to mention a Digimon story. The crossovers might have been a bit much: some people really hate crossovers. But we used them mostly as cameos, and more of parodies for the fantasy genre than as any serious plot elements (that could be argued…). 

But enough of our ranting: REVIEW!! Tell _us_ what _you_ think! After all that we've put into this epic, we'd love to see some major reviews! We only finished this fic because of the reviews we've gotten so far… Now that it's complete, we like to hear how you feel about it as a whole: give us a literary criticism if you think it's appropriate… or a flame if you think it's necessary… just review: we'd like to know people are reading it, and that all this work wasn't in vain. In fact, some people have mailed us expressing the desire to see parts we've never intended to write or a sequel (even though it wasn't complete at the time). If you think that our stories a good inspiration for you and you'd like to write something from (expressly, someone asked about the moat incident)… go ahead! Creativity manifests itself in all forms, use it! ^_~ Peace out!

AngelHeero, Ucchan, Tora

Kudos to anyone who gets ALL the references/parodies! ^_~


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